Winds of change
It was 1963 when my favourite songwriter penned the lyrics to a classic tune. Bob Dylan wrote ”The line it is drawn, the curse it is cast; the slow one now, will later be fast. As the present now will later be past, the order is rapidly fadin’. And the first one now will later be last, for the times they are a-changin’.” And so the changes continue.
Last week, in the wake of a 286-million dollar federal government buyout for tobacco farmers, a spokesperson said the deal signalled “the beginning of the end of a way of life for generations of tobacco farm families.” At the same time, we’re watching General Motors attempt to buy out the contracts of 2600 workers at a truck plant in Oshawa, and we’ve heard countless auto workers talk about how their industry is not one they’d recommend to their kids. The times they are a-changin’ indeed.
It seems to me that in each of these cases, we are bearing witness to the end of an era. We may not be in the final generation of tobacco farmers or auto workers but the writing appears to be rather clearly etched on the wall. How many future generations can there be? In my own experience, I know that blacksmiths at one time practiced a trade that was in great demand. But I cannot claim to have known a blacksmith personally, nor am I able to trace my ancestry to the time when the Farwell family was heavily involved in the trade. How many more generations will it be before we’re talking in the same tones about tobacco farmers and auto workers, considering them relics of a bygone era?
It’s been said that the only thing constant in life is change. But that doesn’t mean we can’t mourn the inevitability of it from time to time.