Jimmy Buffett died last week from a rare form of skin cancer. This news has hit me surprisingly hard. I'm not one who normally obsesses over the lives (or deaths) of celebrities. I liked Buffett's music--or a significant portion of it--although I wouldn't consider myself a Parrothead. My affinity for Buffett certainly preceeded my love of tiki by a couple of decades (although Buffett isn't tiki, strictly speaking). I'd always wanted to see him play live, and for Christmas in 2019 Lisa gifted me with tickets to his show in San Antonio--for March 2020. We all know what happened next. First, the show was rescheduled. Then it was cancelled outright. When his tour ran through Austin last year at the new Moody Center, tickets were twice the price and I was in no position to go. Opportunity lost forever. Still, many of his songs speak to me in a way that's hard to articulate, but one stands out: "We Are the People Our Parents Warned Us About." With this one, there's no difficulty in articulating. As I grow older I increasingly identify with this song, and the recognition of the ever-widening gap between who I am and who my parents wanted me to be will never be reconciled. Were I able to travel back in time 45 years, I really don't think my parents would like me much at all, regardless of whether they knew my identity. We are just very, very different people, and I wasted many, many years in a futile quest to try and please them. Knowing what I know now, I would live my life much differently and make different decisions. And I'm fine with that, mainly because this silly song helped me recognize blind spots in my own life.
Plus, Jimmy gets bonus points for the Gardner McKay reference.
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