My car pooler drove today, so I was able to just sit back, relax, and enjoy the commute this morning. He had is iPod going, and on came a song by BB King. I have no idea which one, but it was good. But, aren't they all good?! I really don't think I've ever heard a BAD BB King song, or a bad blues song performed by one of the greats. They could sing about taking out the trash and it would be amazing, and would more than likely make me cry. But, as I've said before, I'm a crier.
So, I'm listening to this BB King song and my mind is wandering (as it so often does), and I figured out another one of those little "life lessons" that seem to be happening to me lately. I was listening to this song but not really paying attention to the lyrics, and I said to my car pooler, "I should have been born an old, black man because I really love this blues music". My car pooler responded that BB King was once a young black man who is now old, and he's sure paid his dues. Wow....so true, Kenon, so true....
I started thinking about everything that BB King more than likely experienced in his life. It's probably safe to say that just about everything that he's been through are things that I'll never know, first hand. I'll never know what it's like to be born in a one room house to a poor, black, southern family. I'll never know the racism he experienced, the random anger or hatred white people felt towards him. I'll never fully understand how absolutely hard he had to fight to get to this point in his life. The point where his amazing music is playing on a white man's iPod in a white man's pickup truck, as two white middle aged government employees commute to work one morning. I was blown away by that thought. I'm sure BB King, or other poor black children growing up in the deep south, never thought things would change. But they persevered. And thank God they did, I can't imagine a world without BB King's amazing music.
Well, that got me to thinking about how things are now. How lazy we are, in general. How complacent we are, myself included. There are so many of us in this world who have never experienced those struggles, or any struggles. Frankly, I know quite a few people whom I would deem lazy, again, myself included. People of my generation, and especially the younger generations, have no idea. Most of us grew up in our homogenized neighborhoods, were given what we wanted, went to college, now have careers, houses, cars....and it all happened without a whole lot of struggling. I know a lot of people who work hard at what they do, but I don't really know that many people who have that character that BB King has. There really is something to be said for struggling, for paying dues. It changes people. It turns them into survivors.
I had a lot of struggle in my younger years, at one point I was working three jobs. I got up early, commuted to college where I stayed until noon, then I went to job #1. I worked there until 6pm, then I went to job #2. On the weekends I worked at a private hunt club, which required me to get up at 3am, be at the barn by 3:30, and the horses had to be bathed, groomed, and tacked by 5am when the owners showed up to ride. I did it to put myself through college, and then grad school. I worked HARD! Yet, I don't think I would define myself as having character.
I'd like to know the components for character. Obviously it's not solely the struggling, or I'd be brimming with character! There has to be more to it than that. How does one reach a point in life where he or she is content, where he or she doesn't want to slap the crap out of someone at any given moment in time? It seems that a large part of it is having forgiveness. Not harboring anger toward those who caused you the struggle that ultimately gave you the character. Ironic, isn't it? It has to be the forgiveness. Those who fight, who struggle, but forgive, have character. Those who never move beyond it are just bitter.
Maybe when I get to be the same ripe old age as BB King, I'll have character too. I hope so.
