What a Contrast (Or, Angry, Confused, and Perplexed)

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(Warning: this may be long. I’m typing what comes to mind as it comes to mind.) What a contrast. Yesterday I was celebrating the fact that my teenybopper idol, Elton John, turned 75. Later the same day millions of fans were mourning the sudden loss of their idol, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins. He was only 50, an age Elton passed a long time ago. The “angry, confused, and perplexed” part comes from Twitter, which is format I truly believe should go the way of the dinosaur and the 2600 baud modem. When I went there to investigate, I found people figuratively jumping for joy over this kid’s death (like Elton, I passed 50 quite a while ago). Why? Because, apparently, the Foo Fighters required the attendees of their shows to show proof of vaccination. That. Is. SICK. No, not that the Foo Fighters wanted proof of vaccination at their concerts. That’s their prerogative (it’s still a semi-free country). Rather, as one tweet said (this is a paraphrase with the dirty words taken out), there are people who make EVERYTHING about them and their cause. (It reminds me of a cartoon in my physics textbook in college: a mother scorning young Copernicus by telling him the universe did NOT revolve around him. ) I didn’t check when Bob Saget died (I honestly have Twitter for one reason, and one reason only: the National Weather Service will tweet tornado warnings anywhere in the U.S. when they happen, and there’s no app that will do that), but apparently there were people who started the “he died of the vaccination” rumor before his body was even cold. That happened again with Hawkins’ death. Anti-vaxxers and pro-vaxxers are having a knock-down, drag-out fight over a man’s death three seconds after he took his last breath, completely oblivious to the fact that the man’s wife, children, band mates, friends, and fans are having that diarrhea poured on them at the absolute worst possible moment. You know, the Foo Fighters aren’t my musical spokesmen. I’m fine with that. Grunge wasn’t made to speak to or for me. As Paul Simon sang, “Every generation throws a hero up the pop charts.” I couldn’t name you five Foo Fighters songs if you spotted me four and made the fifth one a multiple choice question. However, that doesn’t mean that I can’t have a little bit of sympathy toward the fans of the band, who woke this morning to the news (or, worse, walked out of the concert last night in Columbia after it was “canceled due to a medical emergency,” only to learn the sad reality of the emergency later). I wish others could find a little bit of that sympathy in their hearts — if they have hearts — before they tweet. And the love of many will grow cold. (Matthew 24:12) My sympathies to the family, friends, and fans of Taylor Hawkins. Here’s a nice mellow song from the Foo Fighters