Worlds Apart

The year was 1939.

Bill Monroe was stepping on to the stage of the Grand Ol Opry for the first time.

And in the European theatre, Adolph Hitler was stepping on to the stage, with a much different, and decidedly more insidious, program.

Sometimes, the world in which we live today, with decision makers making decisions that some five-year-olds wouldn't even be dumb enough to make, seems far worse than it ever was. But it's just bad in different ways. Maybe more high-stakes, what with all that "nucular" stuff. But people then hated war when it was even less popular to hate it. People made $35 a week. People probably didn't walk two miles uphill in the snow both ways to school, but some people walked a ways, and probably had to make a pair of shoes last all year. People made real sacrifices and their kids never knew it.

When I think times are tough, I try to remember that things were always hard for somebody, and I try to just enjoy the good things that abound in my life. I make WAY more than $35 a week, my kids get a ride to school every day, and I've probably only worn out a few pairs of shoes in my adult life. It's true that this war is awful, the direction our leaders are dragging us all in is almost impossible to believe, and I have to be fairly vigilant about the things my children "learn" at school, at their other home, and from the media. Modern day livin' does have a few extra trade-offs, but thankfully, bluegrass isn't one of them.