i wanted to be like them - a reminder of impermanence

i was watching a video of the great lowell george this morning and thinking how much i had wanted to be like him when i was younger. oh to be able to play guitar like him, sing like him, be up there in front of adoring masses like him.

for a long time he'd played guitar with another idol of my youth frank zappa - what heaven it must have been to be like them - known the world over and playing such fantastic music!

today both of these greats are dead - died way too young both of them - way before either of them could realize all the fabulous things they could have produced for us.

watching lowell this morning brought another example, admittedly not without sadness, that everything is impermanent - even for the greats! even "they" cannot change the universal truth! would i still want to exchange lives? (both of them and many others died younger than i am now) - no absolutely not. the other man's grass isn't always greener - it might look it at the time but...