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Blog 488 – 12. 07.2016
Baby, The Rain Must Fall

The lyric from which today’s title comes from is, “Baby the rain must fall. Baby, the wind must blow. Wherever my heart leads me, Baby I must go.” It is from the free spirited nineteen sixties and was featured in a movie staring one of the great film stars of the era who was the essence of cool, Steve McQueen. I am a Baby Boomer and these songs, movies, and personalities made an impression on me and many of my generation. Every younger generation hopes to make its mark on the world.

My generation is now the senior citizens. We just elected a President who is even older than I am so for better or worse the Baby Boomers are not done yet. I am reminded of a line I quoted recently from a Bob Dylan song from back in the day called “The Times They Are A Changin’ ” Where a much younger Dylan wrote and sang to the oldsters of the sixties, “Your old road is rapidly aging. Your sons and your daughters are beyond your commands. So get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand.” It is our hand we hope to lend and to encourage you youngsters on your new road.” We did not accomplish all we set out to do and in a lot of ways we’ve left an even bigger mess for you than our parents left us. And some of us are still in denial of this and are looking back to a golden age of our youth that never really was. We had so much hope, so much enthusiasm. We were going to change the world for the better but we settled for so much less than that. My generation fought against the Vietnam War, many only after they saw it first hand and in uniform like Secretary of State John Carey. They were successful in forcing Congress to stop it. And then the same people blinked and allowed The Iraq War which was really the same song but the second verse to happen.

It remains to be seen if my generation has learned anything really. I like to think some of us have and that before we settle into our rocking chairs that we might still be able to accomplish a few of the dreams we held so sacred in our teens and early twenties. I followed my heart at eighteen and joined the U.S. Army. Really I joined so I could go to college after a
three years enlistment and study to be a writer. But I did swear an oath to support and defended The Constitution of the United States from all enemies foreign and domestic. I believed even then that Constitution defended the rights of those who were opposed to the war to protest. I still believe it does. I thought I was going to Vietnam to defend my country turns out it was really to help make more millionaires in the U.S. than there had ever been before. It was just business. I remember a line from a a cursed Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s deceased partner, in Dickens, A Christmas Carol, always popular in all its incarnations this time of year. The line is a reply to Scrooge’s remark, “It was just business.” Marley moans, “Mankind was my business.”

When will we ever learn? How about now. The Family Business has always been more about opening up our heart and lending a hand more than just making a buck.

Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White