I've recently reconnected with several old friends from my childhood days in Austin, Texas. We get together via Zoom or Facebook every week now. This technology is truly amazing and it has allowed us to share our lives as if we were still kids in 1976. I bring this up because I am very touched by the relationship my friend Yoichi has with his 88-year-old father. I remember those two having a very contentious relationship...just as many kids do with their parents. Yoichi was born in Tokyo, but moved to the United States as a young child. He and his Dad did not see eye-to-eye on many things and I think his father did not approve of the "Western" attitudes and views that Yoichi had taken to. This was Austin in the 1970's....a pretty liberal town in a very wide-open decade. It pained me to see the two of them fight and argue. It was a clash of generations. But fast forward 40-plus years, and the two of them have a very loving relationship. Gone is the strife. What a joy to see how they have found each other. Time has done what it does...it wears you down, just as water wears down the rock. I saw the same thing happen with my father. He was not the same person towards the end of his life as he had been as a young father. He mellowed. He opened up. I hope I am on that path too with my family and friends.
I've written about Pink Floyd in this blog before, so you probably remember that they are one of my favorite bands. In 1971, they released the album Meddle which has a track on it called Echoes. Here is the live version from a performance at the ruins of Pompeii. If you like the key of D minor punctuated with a Hammond organ, and an overdriven Fender Start....you will love this.
