I woke up recently with Billy Joel’s “We didn’t start the fire” rampaging through my head. Catchy and fast paced, Joel manages to cram 119 historical events and people within an amazing four minutes and twenty-nine seconds.

It is an incredible history lesson written after Joel had a conversation with a young friend who was lamenting growing up in the 1980s, a much harder era, in his opinion, than Joel’s 1950s generation. The song reminds us that the 1950s generation also faced troubling times, and that knowledge of history is cyclical. It is a musical reminder of Spanish philosopher George Santayana’s words in his 1905 book, The life of Reason, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

The song lingered in my head all day. Thoughts about fires, the results of fires and what, if anything, one can do about fires, circled in my thoughts. Political fires can be put out via voting and letters and phone calls to politicians, but what about the everyday fires we see? We didn’t start the fires, but are there ways within our everyday life that we can dampen, or maybe even put out a fire or two? Maybe? Possibly?

One fire-damping idea that works for me is observing children, seeing the world as they see it. We know a large 3-year-old who recently graduated into size 5 clothes. On a recent trip to the beach, the little boy wearing his new size 5 swimming trunks, was running joyfully towards the water when his swim trunks fell off. Oops.

Mommy, with a newly potty-trained child, had failed to remember that toddler clothes are designed to include a diaper. No matter. No swim trunks was no problem for the little boy.

He thought it was great! He had a little friend with him who thought that looked like fun and shed his trunks as well. Two little baby boys running around on a private beach, no one else around, enjoying the breeze and water on a new portion of their bodies, having a great time. We got a picture of this happy event from the back of the boys titled ‘buns and the sun.’ History repeating itself can be ominous but history can also repeat innocence, joy and freedom.

If one isn’t careful, one can become a fire starter. The other day, I was at a traffic light and having just taken doctor-prescribed codeine cough medicine and a steroid inhaler, I was tired but jumpy. The light turned green, but I didn’t respond immediately and the man behind me laid down on his horn for a long, loud time.

Generally, I ignore such road rage, but I felt terrible, the noise startled me, I felt a flash of anger, and I blew my horn right back at him. He followed me all the way to my destination, and when I turned, he made a rude gesture with his fingers. Never respond, never respond, never respond, I told myself.

A friend of mine used to say “you can mow the grass or lick the roots.” We must be mindful of the past and it is needful to society to express your opinion, vote, write a letter and, if you wish, protest. It is also needful to society that we are not constantly “licking the roots.” History also contains joy, happiness and freedom and it is needful to society to remember those as well.

In 1899, Ada Blenkhorn wrote the lyrics and J. Howard Entwisle composed the music to the song Keep on the Sunny Side. Ms. Blenkhorn wrote the song for her disabled nephew who always wanted his wheelchair pushed to the sunny side of the street. I’ve always loved this song and will end with a small portion of the lyrics. The Carter Family made the song popular in 1964 and there are several versions by varied artists available on YouTube.

“There’s a dark and a troubled side of life
There’s a bright and a sunny side too
Though we meet with the darkness and strife
The sunny side we also may view

Keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side
Keep on the sunny side of life
It will help us every day, it will brighten all the way
If we keep on the sunny side of life”

Cindy Arp, teacher/librarian, retired from Knox County Schools. She and husband Dan live in Heiskell.