When What’s Up? came out, I was in my early twenties.
More than thirty years later, I can hear it and still recognize that same basic feeling: looking around at the world and thinking, Seriously… what is going on? That realization is funny at first. And then maybe a little unsettling.
Because thirty-something years is a long time.
Now Playing
Song: “What’s Up?”
Artist: 4 Non Blondes
Watch, then come back.
25 years and my life is still
Tryin’ to get up that great big hill of hope
For a destination
I realized quickly when I knew I should
That the world was made up of this brotherhood of man
For whatever that means
Now it’s 55 years, and my life is still trying to get up that great big hill. Surely by now we should have figured some things out!
Except – here’s a little history lesson…
In 1989, Billy Joel released We Didn’t Start the Fire, running through decades of headlines, conflicts, personalities, scandals, fears, and turning points.
Click here to see the Official Video on YouTube.
Then, more than thirty years later, Fall Out Boy released an updated version filled with another generation’s wars, disasters, politics, technology, cultural moments, and crises.
Click here to see the Official Video on YouTube.
Billy Joel’s version moves through Cold War tension, Vietnam, Watergate, the AIDS crisis, homelessness, Afghanistan, and political unrest. Fall Out Boy’s version picks up decades later with the War on Terror, political division, climate anxiety, mass violence, conspiracy culture, and more.
See the pattern? Different names. Different headlines. Same fire.
Something about that can make you wonder how much progress we’ve really made. We’re still divided. Still fighting wars. Still hurting each other. Still arguing about what’s right, what’s fair, who is responsible, and who should fix it.
Still looking around and asking some version of the same question.
What is going on?
Today is Election Day here in the U.S., which makes that question feel especially loud. We’ll vote. Results will come in. Some people will celebrate. Others will be disappointed or afraid. There will be arguments about what the results mean and what should happen next. Eventually, another election will come.
So if the world can still make me ask at 55 some of the same questions I was asking at 22, what exactly am I supposed to be grateful for?
Turns out, quite a lot.
One mistake we can make is assuming that progress means the question disappears. The point is I’m not the same person asking it. Thirty-plus years happened between those two versions of me. There were people I hadn’t met yet. People I hadn’t loved yet. Children I hadn’t raised. Places I hadn’t been. Things I hadn’t learned. Mistakes I hadn’t made. Losses I hadn’t experienced.
Perspectives I could not possibly have understood yet.
There were things I once believed that I no longer believe, and things I understand now that younger me couldn’t have seen. The world didn’t have to become perfect for those years to matter. Maybe gratitude doesn’t require us to look around and declare that everything turned out wonderfully.
Maybe gratitude can sound more like:
The questions are still here.
So am I.
And now I can see things from a different perspective.
I got to live the years in between. I got to change. I got to learn. I got to see more of the picture. That can actually matter when we think about changing the world, too. Because while some problems are truly much bigger than any one of us, we still have influence over the little piece of the world we touch. It’s in how we speak to people. In how we disagree. Whether we listen. Whether we assume the worst. Whether we offer grace. Whether we pay attention. Whether we make the space around us a little kinder, safer, more curious, or more human.
We may still be asking some very old questions. Gratitude can come in when we realize we don’t have to keep answering them in exactly the same way.
Perspective
Can you think of a question about life or the world that you’ve carried for years?
Maybe the question hasn’t changed. But when you look at the person asking it now… how have you?