These Are the Days of Our Lives

I saw ‘We Will Rock You’ again last night. Based on the music of Queen, it’s set three hundred years in a scary future world controlled by the Globalsoft Corporation. Everyone who doesn’t conform is ‘disposed of’; there’s no hope for our heroes Galileo and Scaramouche who don’t fit in. There’s no way out,

A number of pessimistic friends don’t trust political systems, believing that all politicians are corrupt, inept or misguided. They’ve been let down by the church or think it’s corrupt or irrelevant. They’ve had unhappy experiences with relationships, work or money. There’s no way out.

‘We Will Rock You’ presents powerful themes of inclusion, freedom, love and a dream of what life can be like… In the end the evil powers are defeated and there is resolution and harmony. The weak become strong, the hope-less become hope-full, losers become champions… There is a way out.

Just before this powerful ending Buddy, an aging hippy librarian, looks back and reflecting on good times, sings:

Those were the days of our lives
The bad things in life were so few…

…Musing on good times, good people, good experiences from my past: ‘The days were endless, we were crazy, we were young. The sun was always shining. We just lived for fun.’ It isn’t just about nostalgia that wishes we were back then. It’s about going back to days when life more straightforward, less complicated and seeing life in a clearer light.

For me that includes a good stable childhood, a young clear faith, the loving promises of marriage, the birth of our three children, significantly limited finances…

I don’t want to go back there. I can’t. ‘These days are all gone now…’ But somehow, reflecting on these days of my life fifty years ago, brings a simpler clarity that enables me to look to my God, my family, my friends and neighbours, and conclude with Buddy, ‘But one thing is true. When I look and I find I still love you.’