An Interlude

 

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning, since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire 

No, we didn't light it

Billy Joel wrote these song lyrics about a world he saw on fire back in 1989. He was in a recording studio and met a Gen Xer who lamented it was a terrible time to be 21. Joel replied, 'Yeah, I remember when I was 21 and thought that was an awful time. We had Vietnam, drugs, civil rights problems, and everything seemed to be awful.'

All true, the fire started long before.

That was then, and it was bad, but there's certainly no shortage of awful stiff today. In case you've been Rip Van Winkling since '89 and were just awakened, you'd peer above your face mask at a landscape pockmarked by pandemic, a major land war in Europe replete with war crimes & decimated cities, a megalomaniac armed with nukes scheming behind his reimagined Iron Curtain, global climate at the threshold of the ICU, extremism on the rise right and left, racism, democracies and truth on life support, a no longer supreme Court (the lower case 's' is not a typo), inflation, and fears of a worldwide recession, etc., etc., etc. And I haven't even gotten to the obscene, repeated mass slaughter of innocents with guns, lots of guns, military guns, always in the hands of disturbed citizens. 

We didn't start this fire

It was always burning

Given the enormity of the conflagration, as well as hindsight that it has always been and will likely go on, and on, and on, it's easy to petrify into inaction, grudgingly accepting the status quo.

Wait! Mr. Joel also had another take on the fire. His song continued with this lyric:

but we tried to fight it

Trying to fight is the right thing to do even if it feels like the Sisyphean labor of eternallly pushing that boulder up the slope only to have it repeatedly roll down to base. It's hard, very hard .... and draining.

So now is a good time to invoke guidance from Ethics of our Fathers (Pirkei Avot) - a compilation of maxims from Rabbinic tradition. Chapter 2:16 teaches, 'It is not up to you to finish the task, but you are not free to avoid it'. In the face of the current ginormous inferno, even a salve of Pirkei seems inadequate. Understandable ..... but unacceptable.

So I offer a solution, an interlude - a brief 'palate cleanser' before you begin your fight in the manner of your choosing.

Splash cool water on your face or take a hot soak, whatever it takes to recharge your batteries. Then rejoin the good fight.

Don't like getting wet? Here's another interlude suggestion before you swing into action. I just experienced it in real time but you can do so vicariously. Let yourself be carried away to the magical island of São Miguel, the largest of the Açorean archipelago located a few hundred miles west of Portugal's coast (Majesty-of-the-Açores). 

Enjoy seeing some sights, meeting the most friendly, courteous people .... and a few four legged friends (mostly cows which easily outnumber the locals). Then, soothed by the thermal waters and refreshed, fly back to join the fire brigade.

Ciao

We didn't start the fire

but we tried to fight it

photos © David Greenfield

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