By Ronald N. Guy Jr.
In 1970, shortly after the start of another long-ago
decade, former Beatle George Harrison released his solo album “All Things Must
Pass”. The title undoubtedly references
the end of The Beatles just months earlier, but in classic, unassuming Harrison
style, it conveys neither bitterness nor excessive optimism; rather, “All
Things Must Pass” is a matter-of-fact statement of the obvious – time moves on,
people evolve, situations change, doors close and others open. The passage of all things isn’t good or bad;
it just is.
Now, at another transition between decades, Harrison’s
art is worth revisiting. The changes in Harrison’s
life during the 1960s are difficult to imagine, much less understand. Perhaps that familiarity with upheaval is why
he confronted his post-Beatles life with an album carrying such a nonchalant
summation. Ah, but such thinking would further
underestimate the most underrated Beatle; more likely, he had a deep
understanding of time, life and change.
Considering the last decade in sports, Harrison’s
prediction of fluidity held – mostly but not entirely, at least for now. When 2010 arrived, the NBA was a very
different place. Kobe Bryant, now long
retired, was on the verge of winning his final championship with the
Lakers. The Golden State Warriors were
bottom feeders and offered no indication that they would win three
championships by the decade’s end.
LeBron James, the best player on the planet, hadn’t yet won a
championship 10 years ago; he has three now.
Talking baseball, the Cubs won the World Series in
2016, the team’s first since 1908.
1908! Keeping it local, the
Orioles started and ended the decade among MLB’s worst but did manage a few
90-ish win seasons and playoff berths between the swoons. As for the Nats circa 2010, Stephen Strasburg
was still months from his debut, Bryce Harper was about to be drafted, Anthony
Rendon was a sophomore at Rice University and Juan Soto was…11 years old. Insane.
From 69 wins in 2010, through much playoff heartache and eventually to a
World Series championship in 2019, it was an epic decades for Nats nation.
The NFL you ask?
Okay, fine. Tom Brady and Drew
Bees, two 40-somethings, are still slinging it.
Lamar Jackson was 12 in 2010; he’s the NFL MVP now. Comparing Baltimore and Washington football,
the Ravens were 12-4 and ‘Skins 6-10 in 2010.
Those Ravens were coached by John Harbaugh; he’s still Baltimore’s
coach. Washington has had three head
coaches in the decade and will soon have a fourth. So, in other words, nothing much has changed
in a decade – Baltimore is a flagship NFL franchise and Washington remains
astoundingly incompetent. Bah
humbug.
After that channeling of Ebenezer Scrooge, let’s end
on a bright note: hockey. In 2010, the
Caps won the franchise’s first Presidents’ Trophy – one of three in the decade
– but, true to form, lost in the first round of the playoffs to the
Canadians. It was just the latest entry
in a multi-decade, seemingly never-ending, playoff horror film. More excruciating playoff losses
followed. Then 2018 happened. The Caps won the Stanley Cup (never gets old
typing that).
Who could have written that script? And as a ball sits perched in Times Square
waiting to introduce a new year and a new decade, who could write the
next? George Harrison already did, at
least in abstract.
The title track of Harrison’s classic album includes
these lyrics: “Sunrise doesn’t last all morning…sunset doesn’t last all
evening; darkness only stays the nighttime…in the morning it will fade
away”. Harrison, at least in song, predicted
and found comfort in the permanence of impermanence. What awaits on the journey to 2030? Wins and losses, joys and sorrows or, as The
Dude might say, “strikes and gutters” - all vague references to change and the
unknown. The specifics? Stay tuned.
Harrison’s tip is to embrace it and know, good or bad, that all things
must pass. Not could. Not might.
Must. But his words are
unmistakably hopeful, a feeling that permeates every New Year’s. A toast then: to George Harrison, timeless
advice, this moment, good fortune and quick sunrises to end any darkness. Happy New Year!
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