If you try sometimes …

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor M y mother probably had the biggest impact on my early years, and one of the ways she did that was my exposing me to the greats of rock music. It’s something I’ve passed on to my own children, so they know all about Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Beatles, AC/DC, the Eagles, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, etc.

My favorite rock band of all time is The Rolling Stones (with an acknowledgement to Guns N’ Roses). The Stones, I think, capture all that there is to love in rock music in their amazingly diverse catalog of songs. The Beatles are great, but really, they only have a handful of albums and a lot of them are full of filler.

Anyway, the Stones’s 1969 album “Let It Bleed” contains some of the best music of that era, including my all-time favorite song, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

From the opening chorus of the London Boys Choir to the slow build and final crescendo, it’s pretty much eight minutes of awesome.

The point of the song, if you can’t tell from the title, is that you can not always get what you want. That’s a little bit of a downer. But if you keep listening, you’ll come to know that “if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need.” That’s a pretty profound message from a band that also brought us “Hey, you, get off of my cloud.”

When we were kids, my mother would often, if we were pestering her about an extra snack or something from the toy aisle at Walmart, would sing “You can’t always get what you want,” in her best Mick Jagger impersonation.

At the time I found it pretty frustrating … but effective. So much so that I continued the tradition with my own children – even though it now means that my daughter hates The Rolling Stones.

What Mick and the boys are telling us though, is a pretty poignant message. The song was written in the late 1960s, in a time of war, a time of social unrest, a time of great social upheaval. It’s full of references to demonstrations, abuse, death and discontent. You would have no trouble plugging those ideas into virtually any decade since and having it be applicable in some way.

Just look at today’s world and you can see we haven’t really solved any of those problems that that 55-year-old song references. There are still people who don’t have what they want, and unfortunately there are plenty who don’t even get what they need. Look at our world and our society. The war is in the Ukraine instead of Vietnam.

The social unrest that had people marching in the streets is still with us. At least when Nixon was president, no one stormed the Capitol. Social upheaval? In the 1960s, it was over civil rights and equal rights. We’ve added a few groups to the cause but the fight is still ongoing.

You might be wondering at this point – what’s the point?.

It’s here: I’m thankful, again, to my Mom for introducing me to the Rolling Stones (and for a million other things, along with my Dad). Because that attitude of maybe not getting everything I want but ultimately getting everything I need has actually guided me pretty well through life.

I don’t have the biggest house, but I’ve got plenty of roof over my head. I don’t drive the newest, fastest truck but it gets me up and down the road. I’m a few generations behind on the latest iPhone and probably even further behind when it comes to fashion. But I’ve got what I need. I’ve got an awesome wife, great kids and enough to make sure they have what they need … even if they don’t always get what they want.

But who does? Who has everything the want? I saw someone last week won a big Powerball lottery. That’s more money than I can probably wrap my head around, so I don’t know where someone like Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates or Elon Musk would even begin. Buying Twitter, I guess?

At some point it might as well be Monopoly money.

I don’t know anything about the person who won the big jackpot but I do wonder if that money will make them happy? I’ve heard many stories of lottery winners ending in tragedy. But for now, I’m sure they are thankful. But you know what? I’m also thankful. I don’t have a billion dollars, but I’m thankful for my life, for my health, for my job, for my family. I don’t know your life situation. But I do hope this Thanksgiving season, you have something to be thankful for. I also hope you have someone in your life to share this time of year with.

Because while you can’t always get what you want. If you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need. And as we’re just a week out from Thanksgiving, I am indeed, as always, thankful for that.