By David Rose
It seems counter intuitive. Young people, who have everything to live for, are daring and willing to take risks. Old people, on the other hand, who have gone to the ground game and are just running out the clock, are afraid of their own shadows.
I know this because I am old people and I’m terrified. What I am most afraid of is young people. I was trapped by a pair of them at last month’s gallery walk. They were coming straight at me on a narrow bit of sidewalk. They had me cornered like a rat in a cage, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. I made myself as small as possible and plastered against a light pole.
But then I saw something that brought me out of my panic induced coma. One of the kids was wearing a Pink Floyd T-shirt. “Hold on,” I said, planting my finger squarely in the middle of the prism. “That’s my music.”
The young man had several tattoos and hair streaked with a color one usually associates with Lawn Boy mowers. He was not taken aback. “Music is universal. It belongs to everybody.” His significant other, who had hair the color of fiberglass insulation, spoke up. “Bethides, our muthick really thucks.”
She also had tattoos as well as multiple body piercings including a stud in her tongue the size of a golf ball. “If we don’t pick up the banner, Rock & Roll will die along with the last of the Boomers,” the boy pointed out. I had to concede the point and stepped out of the couples’ way.
“He not busy being born is busy dying.” Green Hair shot back over his shoulder as the two walked away. A wave of relief swept over me. The kid was quoting Dylan; Rock & Roll will live on. There is hope yet for this country.
As an artist, David Rose won both the Arkansas Governor’s Award and the Delta Award. His works are in the collections of Tim Robbins, Bruce Springsteen, & Susan Sarandon. As a writer he flunked every English class he ever sat in. Born in Woodstock, NY, he is very much a product of the 1960s and never really managed to escape that fabled decade. Visit Rose at www.amazon.com/David-Malcolm-Rose/e/B019GBJI9C/ and on Facebook.
