Dust in the wind?

I have an ear worm. Kansas’ “Dust in the Wind” is stuck in my head. It is one of the great classic rock songs, but its lyrics can be somewhat troublesome. I Googled the lyrics to look more closely at the words and came across an analysis of the song. (I will leave the reader to view this for himself or herself– https://www.popsongprofessor.com/blog/2016/02/29/what-does-dust-in-the-wind-by-kansas-mean.) Essential there is no surprise: “’Dust in the Wind’ by Kansas is about life being meaningless and how our dreams and passions really mean nothing.” The author even underscores how this message is underscored in the Bible (Ecclesiastes 1—“everything is meaningless”). This seems like a pretty depressing reality. What then is the take-home message?

I close my eyes only for a moment, and the moment’s gone. Carpe momento. Our life passes in a flash. The older we get, the faster it seems to pass. Life goes on, and, if we don’t live in the moment, that moment will quickly be gone.

I see photos of my children and it underscores this. It seem like only yesterday that I held my newborn son for the first time. Now, he is fast becoming a man. I wonder. How many moments with my son and daughter did l let pass unnoticed?

No one knows what the next moment will bring. We must, then, live for the now—we must carpe momento!

All my dreams pass before my eyes, a curiosity. Dreams are fleeting. Everyone has dreams. Rarely do our dreams become reality. Sadly, we rarely pursue our dreams as more than “a curiosity”. Sad, really.

Just a drop of water in an endless sea. Sobering. This implies that our life is meaningless. In the big picture, it is. This is not disheartening, however. Rather, it is humbling. If at any point we think we are “special”, we must realize that we are “just a drop of water in an endless sea”—no greater (but, certainly, no less) than another. We are nothing special.

All we do crumbles to the ground. All that we do has limited significance. We desire to leave a “legacy”, but this is a false hope. All that we do will soon be forgotten. Eventually, we all die and fade into history. This does not, however, minimize the significance of what we do today. If we are worried about being remembered tomorrow, we are missing the point.

Nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky. Again, our significance is in what we do today. I, personally, think that “nothing” is a bit of an overstatement. But from a Physical sense this is true. Physically, we return to the earth. (I’ll spare the gory details.) All that is physical deteriorates and “crumbles to the ground”. In a Spiritual sense, I can only agree to a point. Spiritually, we are all connected. Thus, what we do—or don’t do—has a lasting impact. Our effect on others—and the ripples our impact creates—is carried on though over time our direct significance fades.

It slips away…and all your money won’t another minute buy. Power and money do not make one’s life more significant than another. Life is fleeting…no matter who we are (or think we are). Too often, we are so focused on preparing for the future that we completely neglect the now. We worry about tomorrow when we cannot know what tomorrow may bring (Matthew 6:34). We must, then, cherish the moment. If we neglect this out of concern for the future—no matter how well-intended—we lose.

If we don’t carpe momento, we are either preparing for a tomorrow that comes with no guarantees or, we are dwelling on our mortality. The latter is morose. I think of the character, Siggy, from What About Bob? The young boy wears black and dwells on his mortality: “There’s no way out of it…. You’re going to die…. I’m going to die…. It’s going to happen…. What difference does it make if it’s tomorrow or in years?” Of course, Bob Wiley, gives him something else to be afraid of—Tourette Syndrome.

Dust in the wind. Yes, we are all going to die. There is no escaping our mortality. We are but “dust in the wind”. Nevertheless, we can live in the moment and make the moment matter. Dust in the wind is not without significance. The point is not that we are dust. The point is that we are carried in the wind to uncertain places. Make the moment matter!