Bob Dylan wrote “When the Ship Comes In” in 1963 and released it on his “The Times They Are A-Changin’ ” album in 1964. Dylan was in an angry mood when he wrote the song after a hotel clerk refused him a room, thinking the artist was a deadbeat. Dylan finally scored a room after Joan Baez verified his good character. The song is violent and vengeful, but it is also hopeful. The song’s lyrics hint at a vision of a better world built on the ideals of an enlightened generation.
Sixty years have passed since the song first appeared. Aside from a more inclusive social fabric and our ever-advancing technology, I wonder if the times have changed that much. Dylan’s words still ring true in a world where:
The cruel and inhuman war in Ukraine rages on.
The leading Republican candidate faces numerous indictments for fraud and other misdeeds.
The US President’s son faces charges of selling access to his father, and the President may be implicated.
Selfish Aramco raises oil prices despite the devastating effect it will have on the world economy.
Oil companies make token gestures toward clean energy while sitting on their hands and raking in hundreds of billions in profits from the sale of fossil fuels.
Billions of people continue to live under dictatorships and go to bed hungry every night.
The clock is running out on Global Warming.
We need the social conscience and action of a generation of young people like the one we had in the sixties. Instead, we have a malaise of complacency and ignorance today with too few bright spots in between. But it’s not too late. “When the Ship Comes In” came to me in a dream. It came, literally, from out of nowhere. It must have come to me for a reason. Maybe Dylan’s resounding words will spark something in us.
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