A few months back, Fall Out Boy dropped a cover of the Billy Joel classic, “We Didn’t Start The Fire,” but with verses rewritten to describe news events from the past thirty years.
Detailing everything from the Kurt Cobain’s suicide to Trumps dual impeachments, the song is sprawling in its scope, much like the original. However, there’s one major news event that didn’t make the cut.
There isn’t a single mention of Covid.
Nothing on vaccines, quarantine, masks, or toilet paper.
Isn’t it remarkable how some events loom so large in our psyche, they become the water we swim in? They consume us whole, to the point we fail to recognize them as a part of our reality.
This whole thing reminded me of a phenomenal scene from one of Pixar’s most recent gems, Soul.
Sometimes it’s not only worth remembering what it is we’re swimming in, but also that we’re swimming in anything at all.
joshua chamberlain 