playlist: the fire still burns

they told you it wouldn't last. things were not so possible.

the floppy hair. the shaggy jaw. the ragged shoes. the threadbare jeans. the shuffling slouch. the eyes cast on the ground, but alight on vivid horizons.

they told you it was just a part of youth, and it would fade away in time. things were just not so possible.

the frustration. the resentment. the impatience. with the way things were and the realization that it didn't have to be. the hunger. the desire. seeing the world for what it was and wanting to make it better, with the emotions so intense you felt like you would explode. it seemed like you were on fire.

they told you that it would all go of its own, and that you were young, and still naive, and didn't know enough to make the change you wanted to see. such things were just not so possible.

but you had sneered, and laughed, and raged, and like so many other youths before and after, you had stormed off on your own, complete with the middle finger salute raised high.

the world, you knew, was wrong. and in so many ways. and you wanted to light your flame higher so that others could see what you could see.

and what you saw was many.

sex pistols: god save the queen


decay and death. conflict and carnage. horror and hate. suffering and sorrow.

the clash: rock the casbah


all made by absurdity. stupidity. depravity and vice.

the ramones: bonzo goes to bitburg


sustained by insanity. fed by madness.

dead kennedys: kill the poor


a world without hope.

suicidal tendencies: institutionalized


they had told you it wouldn't last. they had told you there was no difference. they had told you it would not change. because such things were just not so possible.

but you hadn't cared. the world, you knew, was wrong. and it needed hope. it needed a difference. and you wanted to see it change.

you, with all your generation. young and on fire.

and so you'd fought for your causes, carried your flags, announced your creeds. you'd raged and stormed against a world you'd known was wrong and for a world that needed hope. for a difference and a change. with emotions so intense you'd thought that you would explode. with a fire lit as high as it would go, and which burned as bright as your eyes, alight on vivid horizons.

in the end, it had consumed you.

because you found you did not make the change you had wanted to see. it did not make a difference. you saw the world for what it was, and it was not better; you saw the way things were, and it was not meant to be. and a fire without fuel turned upon itself.

you, with all your generation.

the awesome reality destroyed many of you. it made some cynics. it made others bitter. it made a few mad with self-destruction.

joy division: love will tear us apart


eventually, in the anguish of the aftermath, you came to accept that you had not known enough. you came to understand that you had been naive. you came witness that it had gone all of its own. just like they said it would.

for all this, you discovered that they still did not stop. they. them. the ones who had told you this was the world as it was, the was the way it was meant to be. they. now joined by the disenchanted of your generation, with dried embers and faded vision, in union with their same everlasting message: such things are just not so possible.

they didn't stop, you see, because it wasn't enough that you saw they were right. it was because they wanted you to join them...join in saying that this is how it is for you, this is how it is for the world, this is how it is for everything: such things are just not so possible.

david bowie: under pressure


they are right in some ways. time did pass. youth didn't last. you no longer have the floppy hair, or the shaggy jaw, or the ragged shoes. you no longer have the threadbare jeans, or the shuffling slouch. you no longer have the eyes cast on the ground.

but they are wrong, so wrong. in all the ways that truly matter.

your eyes are still alight on vivid horizons.

even as others in your generation have dimmed. even as they tell you such things are just not so possible.

because you see the way things are and realize it doesn't have to be.

because you see the world for what it is and want to make it better.

because you see with the same intensity of emotion, and the same brightness of fire.

public image limited: rise


you still see horizons.

you are not so young. you still may not know, and you still may be naive, and things may still go their own way. but at least you try, even as they still say such things are just not so possible.

you still see horizons.

and you go to follow them. you go, even as they are far, even as they are vast, even as they are endless. you go, to seek the lessons of the distance, even as your body grows weary, even as your mind goes numb, even as they repeat that things are just not so possible.

you still see horizons.

with intensity of emotion and brightness of fire, eyes alight and vivid. even as they continue to tell you things are not so possible.

you don't care.

because the world you know is wrong, and it needs hope.

because it needs to be shown a difference and a change.

because it needs to know that things are possible.

because, even though they didn't stop, your fire still burns.