Sunday, January 20, 2008

The Wisdom of Bachman

I was recently reminded of the time I went to go hear Randy Bachman speak at the Wilkinson Center (i.e., student union building) at BYU during my freshman year in the spring of 1978. Bachman, of course, was (and is) an alumnus of two popular 70s-era rock groups, the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive; however, more fascinating to me was the fact that he was an LDS rock star, a thing almost inconceivable to Mormon youth at the time, since we were regularly assured that rock 'n' roll (which by definition excluded the Osmonds) was the Devil's music, etc. I don't remember much of what he said that day, but two things stick out in my mind. The first is the story he told about his grandmother's miraculous, spontaneous recovery from late-stage cancer following a priesthood blessing. The second is the short discourse he gave on the topic of friendships: he said it had been his experience that friendships seem to run in five-year cycles -- that every so often we as human beings naturally seem to acquire a new set of friends as we outgrow each other or move on to other interests. The astuteness of that observation has been borne out for me over the years, as periodically my friends and I seem to grow apart from each other. It seems now that the only real friend and confidante I have is my wife; I'd better hold onto her, I guess.