FOREVER YOUNG LASTS FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS

A song like Forever Young is a nice thing until something sears it right into your brain instead of bouncing off your ear, turning the dial, and moving on.

Forever Young is such a song for millions.

It’s the song for every parent who has seen their kid move from stage to stage, from rolling to crawling to standing, from first step to walking to running.

Bob Dylan wrote Forever Young when there wasn’t a song in its place.

Frank Sinatra sang ‘It Was A Very Good Year’ that started at age seventeen, then twenty five, thirty five, then aged out for the last jump. It’s a big one.

Dylan sang his song to an era of young people speaking their mind, baby boomers. And we know how that worked out.

We got old. No shock, right? It happens. Some of us are older than our parents when they died. Some of us have kids older than our parents when they passed.

Forever young feels weird?

I’ve looked at pictures of my mom and dad as kids, and my adult children when they were the same age. It feels like a time warp.

I’ve got a picture of my Grandpa on my dad’s side showing him in his twenties. Someone looked at it and said, “Good photo shop,” except it wasn’t. We just looked alike.

The forever young I see grows on the family tree, from kids to parents to kids over and over. Is that the circle of life, or what? Joni Mitchell says yes.

I’m asking you, dear reader, what is your Forever Young moment? When did it finally sink in?

My mom was sleeping one afternoon during her hospice care days. When I visited I found a harp player doing their work. I called it an opening act.

While she slept I brought in my guitar and played another Dylan song, Knocking On Heaven’s Door. One of the grandkids came in and made a face, said maybe I ought to play something else.

The request brought a raised hand from momma. “I like this song,” she said. I lit a candle for her.

Last night I a lit another candle.