What We've Become

 

Let's consider what we've gotten used to this year:

We've gotten used to carrying face masks with us wherever we go and wearing them when we are near others.

We've gotten used to avoiding people; by staying six feet away from each other.

We've gotten used to never hugging anyone.

We've gotten used to staying home almost all the time.

We've gotten used to watching sports games on TV in empty stadiums, with cardboard cutouts as stand-ins for fans like us.

We've gotten used to unimaginable numbers -- one million dead, 35 million infected worldwide.

We've gotten used to lonely deaths with no family at a loved one's side.

We've gotten used to our favorite shops and businesses going out of business.

We've gotten used to stupid Zoom calls. We hate them.

We've gotten used to sleepless nights.

We've gotten used to our school-aged family members adapting to virtual school, and no longer thriving.

We've gotten used to a national spectacle of a reality TV star dominating what once was a civic discourse.

We've gotten used to messages of hate and racism injected into public life.

We've gotten used to people calling out for help and nobody listening.

We've gotten used to climate disruptions ruining life on earth, piece by piece.

We've gotten used to yet another famous person falling to the disease.

We've gotten used to a permanent overclass of billionaires and a permanent underclass of everyone else.

We've gotten used to crying.

We've gotten used to home deliveries. The thrill is gone.

We've gotten used to televised images of people combing through bombed-out buildings in distant lands; they've gotten used to combing through bombed-out buildings looking for loved ones.

We've gotten used to longing for people and places we'll never see.

This is the tip of an iceberg list. What else must we get used to?

***

Some time ago a crazy dream came to me
I dreamt I was walkin' into World War Three
I went to the doctor the very next day
To see what kinda words he could say.
He said it was a bad dream.
I wouldn't worry 'bout it none, though
They were my own dreams and they're only in my head.

I said, "Hold it, Doc, a World War passed through my brain."
He said, "Nurse, get your pad, this boy's insane, "
He grabbed my arm, I said "Ouch!"
As I landed on the psychiatric couch
He said, "Tell me about it."

Well, the whole thing started at 3 o'clock fast
It was all over by quarter past.
I was down in the sewer with some little lover
When I peeked out from a manhole cover
Wondering who turned the lights on.

Well, I got up and walked around
And up and down the lonesome town.
I stood a-wondering which way to go
I lit a cigarette on a parking meter
And walked on down the road.
It was a normal day.

Well, I rung the fallout shelter bell
And I leaned my head and I gave a yell
"Give me a string bean, I'm a hungry man."
A shotgun fired and away I ran.
I don't blame them too much though
He didn't know me.

Down at the corner by a hot-dog stand
I seen a man, I said, "Howdy friend
I guess there's just us two."
He screamed a bit and away he flew.
Thought I was a Communist.

Well, I spied a girl and before she could leave
"Let's go and play Adam and Eve."
I took her by the hand and my heart it was thumpin'
When she said, "Hey man, you crazy or sumpin'
You see what happened last time they started."

Well, I seen a Cadillac window uptown
And there was nobody aroun'
I got into the driver's seat
And I drove 42nd Street
In my Cadillac.
Good car to drive after a war.

Well, I remember seein' some ad
So I turned on my Conelrad.
But I didn't pay my Con Ed bill
So the radio didn't work so well.
Turned on my player-
It was Rock-A-Day, Johnny singin'
"Tell Your Ma, Tell Your Pa
Our Loves Are Gonna Grow Ooh-wah, Ooh-wah."

I was feelin' kinda lonesome and blue
I needed somebody to talk to.
So I called up the operator of time
Just to hear a voice of some kind.
"When you hear the beep
It will be three o'clock, "
She said that for over an hour
And I hung it up.

Well, the doctor interrupted me just about then
Sayin, "Hey I've been havin' the same old dreams
But mine was a little different you see.
I dreamt that the only person left after the war was me.
I didn't see you around."
Well, now time passed and now it seems
Everybody's having them dreams.
Everybody sees themselves walkin' around with no one else.
Half of the people can be part right all of the time
Some of the people can be all right part of the time.
But all the people can't be all right all the time
I think Abraham Lincoln said that.
"I'll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours, "
I said that

-- Bob Dylan

--30--