The caller ID on my phone said it was Emmett calling – my 16-year-old grandson. On behalf of the youth group at Unity North Spiritual Center, he asked if I would sing at their Earth Day celebration on Monday. I was surprised, felt honored but somewhat daunted, wondering what I might offer. When I told him I could come up with something, he suggested a song he already had in mind: Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A Changin’.” Not only did this relieve me of decision making, but it was a song I sang when I was much younger.
But why, I wondered, do we still need to sing it? We are still trying to fulfill the promise of a better world for our children, who now have to take up the mantle themselves and compensate for our failures. Much of my generation has been assimilated into the commercial “establishment,” having reaped the benefits of environmental degradation in an institutionalized and capitalized death cult that would exploit our resources as if there were no tomorrow. The young people (at least some of them) are awake to the realization that there may not be a decent tomorrow for them if we exhaust our one planet’s resources while filling it with toxic chemicals and greenhouse gases.
How ironic: I originally sang the same song with older generations in mind for their corruption, wars and racism; I sing it now to my own generation for most of the same issues, with an additional focus on climate change and climate justice.
I am proud to stand with the youth who stand up for the earth, who care about life’s survival and are concerned for the future of us all. Once again, our youth give me hope. I want it to be true that The Times They Are A Changin’ – this time for the better.
Let’s celebrate the earth as if our lives depend on it.