Old Lady to Young Lady - "the green thing"

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested
to the older woman that she should bring her own grocery
bags because plastic bags weren't good for the
environment.
The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this
green thing back in my earlier days."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today.

Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."
She was right -- our generation didn't have the green
thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and
beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to
the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so
it could use the same bottles over and over. So they
really were recycled. But we didn't have the green
thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator
in every store and office building. We walked to the
grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower
machine every time we had to go two blocks.

But she was right....
We didn't have the green thing in our day.
Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we
didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a clothes line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right.....

We didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not
a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the
size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen
the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we
blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have
electric machines to do everything for us. When we
packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used
wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or
plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an
engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used
a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by
working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run
on treadmills that operate on electricity.
But she's right.......
We didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a
drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink
instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor
blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole
razor just because the blade got dull.
But we didn't have the green thing back then.
Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus, and kids
rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning
their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one
electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of
sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need
a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from
satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the
nearest pizza joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how
wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have
the green thing back then?

Mistake Learning

One of the hardest dances in life, is learning how to face conflict. We learn more from those with whom we disagree, than from the pandering friends that applaud our every whim. We can only get better when we stop getting bitter in the face of the disapproval that comes with conflict. It's so hard not to fight against it. Embracing conflict means to see conflict as an opportunity to see ourselves and others more clearly, as we learn to face our foibles and the faults of others. Nothing feels better, in the long run, than actually learning from our mistakes. Conflict remains a part of life, and dealing with it makes all things better in the short run, and in the long run. Life is only as rich as our ability to face and deal with our conflict, because ultimately that is dealing with life as an adult, not as a child. As the old saying goes.. "It's what you learn after you know it all that counts."

Forget the Past (lyrics)

I wrote this song around 2000, in an attempt to remind myself that the music is not the music business. My band at the time Blueground Undergrass was tanking with internal conflict and this was my attempt to remind myself, and the band, about the live show and the power of music. It's also a statement on the existential aloneness of togetherness.

It appears on the album "Newground" which can only be found used online. Thanks Ian Brown for asking me for the lyrics. -JM


Forget the Past by Jeff Mosier

The old man and his band were all in tune.
They stepped right up and filled the room.
And the dancers as they slowly came around,
That ole' floor was solid ground.
As they danced away their troubles they could find their way.
They let the music do its magic while the whole band played.
In the sound they found the answers to their every wound.
Forget the past, then you'll hear your tune.

As the band played on the dancers closed their eyes.
As night went on they realized.
That the sound of the music takes away,
all the pain that tries its best to stay.
As they danced away their troubles they could find their way.
They let the music do its magic while the whole band played.
In the sound they found the answers to their every wound.
Forget the past, then you'll hear your tune.

Bridge
Life gets hard when the music goes away.
You've got to change the steps you're doing as the music plays.
Never let your feet stop movin' on that ole' dance floor.
When the music speaks, there's nothing more, nothing more.

Life gets hard when the music goes away.
You've got to change the steps you're doing as the music plays.
Never let your feet stop moving on that ole' dance floor.
Forget the past
Them you'll hear your tune
Forget the past now.
Forget the past.

Humans Not Being

“If all insects on Earth disappeared, within 50 years all life on Earth would end. If all human beings disappeared from the Earth, within 50 years all forms of life would flourish.” ―Biologist Jonas Salk

We're only viable to ourselves, not to the rest of nature. We've added heat, weight, toxins, and many other things we're not willing to face. We may have created god in order to make us feel better about ourselves. Maybe we're not a creation, but rather a mutation. Like spam with a plan, meat on a mission, running our mouth on delusional memory. No animal does to its members what we do to ours. If the planet's lucky we won't be here long. I'm being nice. :-)

Until we start facing ourselves, and our species-wide behavior, we have no hope of becoming any better. To start a discussion about human beings anywhere else is delusional, and most certainly a colossal waste of time. Stare at your dog and then stare in the mirror. Try to learn from your dog. You'll either see it or you won't. Surely we can and must get better.