Although Pete Seeger is credited with writing the lyrics to this song, as most people know these are verses from the book of Ecclesiastes with Pete adding the title and the phrase... turn, turn, turn. The Byrds then recorded it in the early 60's and I've been singing it all my life but never really listening to it, at least listening and understanding.
And then, one of the lines that I have been singing all of this time finally meant something to me:
"And a time to every purpose, under Heaven"
Tonight I was up at midnight having a conversation with my 15 year old grandson, Caleb. He and his brother, Nathan, are spending the weekend with us while my son-in-law, Ben and daughter, Kassidy, are celebrating Ben's birthday on a much needed weekend getaway in Oklahama City. Their two other boys, "The Littles", Owen and Brendon, are with Ben's Mom and Dad.
The weekend got off to a little bit of a rocky start after we had gotten home Friday afternoon from picking them up from a halfway point from Ardmore, Oklahoma. We had pretty much said goodnight to the boys later that evening only to have to Caleb wake us up and tell us he was hungry and it was 8:30 at night. I guess we had forgotten how teenagers have a bottomless pit for a stomach and time really doesn't have much meaning. Plus the fact we are old, as in "go to bed early old". Anyway, they wanted a pizza, we wanted sleep and the compromise was crackers.
Tonight however was different.
I got up at midnight, just to make sure everyone was where they were supposed to be, lights turned off, and dog not left outside. And not surprisingly, Caleb was awake and on his tablet.
I guess he was a little surprised I was awake and we exchanged some pleasantries and I let him get back to doing his thing, and me simply doing a walk-through.
And then I decided to talk. Better still, I decided to listen.
It dawned on me, when was the last time I had kept quiet and listened to what other people had to say? When was the last time I allowed someone else to share their ideas and dreams without interruptions? When was the last time I listened to a teenager and was willing to think that they have dreams as well and something intelligent to add?
I kind of broke the ice a little as I shared some of the stupid things I did when I was his age. I caught myself holding back talking about the real stupid stuff like sneaking my Dad's car out of the garage in the middle of the night with my friend, Bobby R., but I did tell him about my smoking and the regrets for those actions.
And then it was his turn.
He told me of his wanting to be able to build a high-powered, extremely fast computer. He told me of how sometime later in life he wanted to start a business of having people who would work for him making company logos and he would sell the logos to different businesses. He told me how he might consider the military. He had a lot of ideas and I encouraged him and told him they were all doable.
We touched on his frustrations with his current laptop not working up to the capacity that he needed to do some of his gaming. Some of that frustration showed earlier in the day when he started yelling at the laptop and I told him to close it and not open it again while he was here. He apologized and I forgave him and moved on.
I opened the door a little wider and mentioned how anger and frustration is what is splitting this country in half. I wasn't surprised at all either when this 15 year old told me he was so tired of hearing the anger from people only because they have different views on politics. Hearing the anger makes him angry.
This was a wakeup call to me. And once again I heard the song in my head and the wonderful lyrics.
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