Simon and Garfunkel Concert
Last night I attended a Simon and Garfunkel concert with the geriatric crowd. Grey heads were bobbing to the sounds of the 60s. Older couples dressed alike making some sort of statement, I’m not sure what.
It’s hard to imagine the performers are now 60 years old. What? When did that happen? I thought we wouldn’t live past 30 yrs old. Remember Jerry Rubin saying, “Never trust anyone older than 30?” And here we were, 50 years plus. Who are we going to trust now?
As I looked at this older crowd the thought struck me that many may have at one time run naked through the woods at Woodstock or some other similar rock festival. (That thought gave me a shudder) They probably protested at some peace rally and got tear-gassed in Berkeley; I know I did. Did anyone know what they were doing? Nowadays they look like stockbrokers or schoolteachers. Indeed, the couple behind us were school teachers living in a nearby small town at the base of the Sierra Nevada’s. The wife was spouting off her love of folk music, naming all the icons of the 60s. She lamented that they had been on their way to Oregon and had gotten stuck in this small “red-neck” town. I thought, what if I’m a redneck and what does that mean anyway? I had the idea that she was still pissed off she couldn’t live her hippie dream of utopia and had to actually work for a living with a bunch of “red-necks.”
I was happy when another geriatric couple sat next to me who turned out to be a rabbi and his wife. She being a nurse practitioner and newly arrived due to her husband taking over the local synagogue. I sensed that when I asked them pointed questions, such as what job they did, and they needed to tell me their profession that there was a hesitancy, and unsure atmosphere, causing them to take the plunge and blurt out that he was a rabbi. I supposed they have encountered a lot of hostility and it made me sad. They were the nicest couple and we talked quietly about life, family and God. They made me very comfortable, unlike the woman in the back row who seemed to have some sort of chip on her shoulder and felt the world needed to hear about it.
Then the lights dimmed and there they were. Real human beings -- though larger than life as anyone is with such talent and being so well known. I remembered their songs and the words took me back to the days of my youth. It was a good and bad feeling. I know I was unhappy, unhappy with the world and unhappy with myself. I drew a lot from the poetry in their music and wondered why it had not soothed my soul enough to keep me from entering a wild door that would shut behind me and transcend me to an ethereal world where I was preyed on and where I opened myself up to a bad deal. A deal that cheated me out of what I should have gotten out of life. Well, at least I’m not lamenting of being stuck in a “red-neck” town like the lady behind me. I lived my life, I traveled, I saw places and peoples most never get the chance to see. The low points I trudged through brought me to a place of experience that enlightens me enough to understand more than the stuck in the rut schoolteacher.
“Sitting on Park Benches like bookends – Old Friends.” What irony.