Temple of the Blog: December 2018

Another year has come and gone. The holidays and new year have always created a bit of nostalgia for most of us, thinking about our time as kids and the loved ones we're missing who are no longer around to take part in the current holiday.

That nostalgia often leads to melancholia especially once you hit a certain age. Now, I'm at the age (45) where you realize that with the average American lifespan being around 80 years, you likely have many fewer tomorrows than yesterdays. This point was fully realized in a great post by Tom Scocca a few months ago.

These feelings probably have an effect on how some of us view annual gatherings differently. When you're at home staring at your phone and watching TV there is no constant reminder of your aging and mortality. But when you see family and friends, you see they have gotten older. Brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews, friends and your friends' kids all keep getting older. "Oh my, I can't believe how big little so and so has gotten" is just another way of saying, damn I am five years older than I was when he was smaller."

And in thinking about how you have fewer tomorrows on this earth before you become worm food, you then are forced to reckon with the number of those fewer tomorrows will be spent fighting illnesses or at best being less able to do what you did when you were younger. And then if you are lucky enough to defy father time and have more tomorrows than expected, it's likely you will have to see your friends and family suffer illnesses and pass on.

An acquirable wisdom that comes with aging is how precious a commodity time is. More than money, status, or anything else, time is the one finite resource we have and it's not on our side.

But art in general and music specifically can be timeless. Great music sounds just as present today as they did when it was released. When you put on an old album you are transported to 1966, 1978, or 1985, or 2003 all over again. This time next year will be wrapping up an entire decade and it feels like 2010 was only like two years ago. Father Time is still undefeated.

Anyway, Happy New Year, I guess. Enjoy the list.