Little Ditty About Jack and Diane

In 1981, John Cougar brought us a little ditty about Jack and Diane, two American kids growing up in the heartland.

That song, from his American Fool album, was a #1 hit for four weeks, and remains his most popular song to this day.

"Oh yeah life goes on,
Long after the thrill of livin' is gone...
Oh yeah life goes on,
Long after the thrill of livin' is gone."

A quarter century has passed since I first heard that chorus and it speaks to me now as it never did back then. Life has indeed "gone on"...time waits for no man. Some days, when things are tough, I do wonder whether the "thrill of living" is gone. Often, it seems that the tedium of day-to-day existence is a burden rarely lifted. The joys and passions of my youth seem distant. In their place, the sobering reality of providing for my family.

Juvenal, the Roman satirist, criticized the vanity of human wishes in his tenth satire. Juvenal suggested that "wrong desire" in importuning the gods for various blessings led to suffering. Stated early in the satire is this comment:

"Whole households have been destroyed by the compliant Gods in answer to the master's prayers; in camp and city alike we ask for things that will be our ruin."

Juvenal identified wealth ("riches and their increase") as the foremost petition of the gods. Juvenal pointedly noted the envy that such wealth inspired and the resulting fears of the wealthy (e.g., being poisoned in a silver cup). He quips:

"Though you carry but few silver vessels with you in a night journey, you will be afraid of the sword and cudgel of a freebooter, you will tremble at the shadow of a reed shaking in the moonlight; but the empty-handed traveller will whistle in the robber's face."

Juvenal also addressed prayers for long life, suggesting they were uninformed:

"Give me length of days, give me many years, O Jupiter! Such is your one and only prayer, in days of strength or of sickness; yet how great, how unceasing, are the miseries of old age!"

In demonstrating how such prayers, even when granted, still do not guarantee human happiness, Juvenal catalogues the woes of the elderly in unflattering detail. It is a stark portrayal of the potential infirmities of old age and still serves as a warning to us today, regardless of our technology, regardless of modern medicine.

"Look first at the misshapen and ungainly face, so unlike its former self; see the unsightly hide that serves for skin; see the pendulous cheeks and the wrinkles like those which a matron baboon carves upon her aged jaws in the shaded glades of Thabraca. The young men differ in various ways: this man is handsomer than that, and he than another; one is stronger than another: but old men all look alike. Their voices are as shaky as their limbs, their heads without hair, their noses drivelling as in childhood. Their bread, poor wretches, has to be munched by toothless gums; so offensive do they become to their wives, their children and themselves, that even the legacy-hunter, Cossus, turns from them in disgust. Their sluggish palate takes joy in wine or food no longer, and all pleasures of the flesh have been long ago forgotten"

Not a pretty picture of our "golden years". If a person reaches such a point in their life, I imagine they might feel that the "thrill of living" is not only gone, but has been replaced with the "misery of living".

However, being concerned about the future to the detriment of enjoying the present is not healthy. Carpe diem, you say? "Seizing the day"...living for the moment...it has its attractions. John Cougar may have had "carpe diem" in mind in this verse from our little ditty:

"Gonna let it rock,
Let it roll,
Let the Bible belt come down
And save my soul .
Hold on to 16 as long as you can,
Changes comin' round real soon
Make us women and men."

But, I don't think the philosophy of carpe diem is the key to maintaining the "thrill of life". To me, the key is finding balance in all our endeavors, in all aspects of our life. Enjoy the here and now, while learning the lessons of the past, and planning for the future as well. And, don't let the tough times keep you down. As someone famously said, "Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you have to keep moving."

Best wishes for a long and thrilling "bicycle ride"...