Start the Fire

So, my great Monday morning sleep in was interrupted by cats behaving terribly… mostly b/c they were hungry. Tiki got taken to the vet to be fixed today, so no food after 6pm last night, and instead of locking him up by himself, we just put the food away. But sometimes that’s the only time when Turbo eats and they were both STARVING. and crazy. and making lots of morning noise. Silly cats.

I had a great meeting with my young adult cell group this afternoon. We talked forever, about everything and I got SO much out of it. It’s strange how much you crave that kind of conversation. Plus the chocolate tort that I got to eat at the end of about hour three was fantastic.

I listened to NPR both on the way out and way back from the meeting. I am so excited about all of the inaugural events and so proud of our country right now. As I listened to Rep. John Lewis share his story and listened to the pastor who will deliver the closing benediction tomorrow, I really got choked up thinking about how monumental tomorrow is.

I am supposed to be leading a small group study – right at the time of the inauguration events – I’m going to try to close early, or invite them to watch with me or something – it’s too important to miss. Even if it’s on my laptop with streaming CNN coverage or something.

Checking the NYT today I saw this great column: an updated version of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” that I thought I should share. In high school, we did a Billy Joel show for marching band and this brought back SO many memories.

We Didn’t Start the Fire (2)by Roger Cohen

Bill Clinton, Tina Fey, capitalist China, O.J.,
Asia rising, Facebook, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld, Ugg boots, Seinfeld
West Bank, Gaza City, Tupac Amaru Shakur

Mohamed Atta, W.M.D., Harry Potter, Reality TV
Tom Cruise, American Beauty, MP3, Oprah Winfrey

Schwarzenegger, YouTube, America’s got organic food
Armstrong, blogosphere, Monica Lewinsky

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it

Vlad Putin, Medvedev, Assad, Posh-and-Becks
The West Wing, Y2K, massacre in Falluja

Britney Spears, Spike Lee, Kurt Cobain, Sarkozy
Mia Hamm, Heath Ledger, Viagra, Napster

Lindsay Lohan, skinny jeans, Boston’s got a winning team
Lehman Brothers, A.I.G., subprime, Ponzi scheme

Rwanda, Darfur, Bosnia, and a billion poor,
Tehran, Hezbollah, trouble with the jihadis

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it

New Orleans, Bolaño, Sarah Palin no-go
TiVo, Hu Jintao, and the vegan-eco crowd

Tony Blair, Paris Hilton, Princess Di, Bin Laden
Pyongyang, the renditions gang, Roger Clemens in a cloud

ACT UP, Infinite Jest, O.J. Part Two, Johnny Depp
iPhones, Federer, Who Let the Dogs Out?

Halle Berry, cloned Dolly, and another Kennedy
Jon Stewart, American Psycho, tsunami, Danger Mouse

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it

Sedaris, Unabomber, Girls Gone Wild, Nasrallah
Jay-Z, Shanghai, shock and awe in Baghdad

Amy Winehouse, Imus, gases of the greenhouse
Kelly Ripa, Maureen Dowd, Ted Williams gone mad

Outsourcing, Mumbai, so many didn’t have to die
David Blaine, human rights, and Napoleon Dynamite

Mandela, Madonna’s ex, abstinence, safe sex
Rabin blown away, what else do I have to say?

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it

BlackBerry, global mall, Hillary Clinton standing tall
Tiger Woods, Barry Bonds, MySpace, The Corrections

Rushdie, Starbucks, Channel Tunnel, Spurlock
American Idol, Black Hawk Down, Miracle on the Hudson

Sopranos, Cougars, Da Vinci Code, life on Mars
Saddam hung, Mugabe, traumatic stress, mission creep

Social networks, match.com, iChat, Amazon,
Terror cells, endless war, I can’t take it anymore

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it

Hawaii, Kenya, Kansas and Jakarta
Harvard, finding God, social work, Axelrod

Red state, blue state, unity can no longer wait,
A time to reap, a time to sow, we will close Guantánamo

Iowa, Yes We Can, McCain was just an also-ran
I Have a Dream, Bush out, a black man in the White House

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire …