Wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then”
-Bob Seger
Naïveté is a precious thing.
Most of us can look back on times when life was great. We were loved, we were happy—maybe we were five, or maybe it was high school. But something happened and we learned that life is not golden all the time. We learned that the world can be difficult, even cruel.
Bob Seger was just a kid of 10 when his alcoholic father left for good. The man had spent years in shouting matches with his wife in fights so hateful and loud, the the neighbors got involved. The tumult was finally over when he abandoned the family, leaving them in financial ruin.
Seger had to grow up fast. He later wrote these words in a song called “Against The Wind.” In April 1980 the song hit Billboard’s Hot top 100 chart and stayed for 17 weeks, and while Seger’s words reflected his own experiences with disappointment and heartache, they also hit home for multitudes of the disheartened.
Consider the black child, raised in a loving home, who gets out into the world and experiences racism, exclusion, and distrust. Consider the woman—abandoned and alone, whose age has devalued her in a society which focuses only on youth. Consider the young girl, precious to her parents, who grows to find her only worth in society is her body.
Life is not golden all the time. And many many of us wish we didn’t know now what we didn’t know then. Bob Seger has done well in the music business, but personally there was no foundation. He has been married four times and his life reflects another line in this song: “I’m older now but still running against the wind.”
In the fight against the storm of injustice, the challenge for us all is to face what the world gives, to depend on the One who loves us and values us, no matter what, and to press on—running against the wind.
Blessings,
Jim
“…With God, all things are possible” – Matthew 19:26
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