“Jimmy Buffett died!”

I had reconciled myself to the fact this news was coming at some point, but it saddened me nonetheless. 

To be honest, I am not a card-carrying Parrothead. I have never been to a Jimmy Buffett concert, I don’t own a Hawaiian shirt, and I don’t particularly like margaritas. What I appreciated about Jimmy Buffett and his music was the joy, and the wisdom behind the words. 

My relationship with Jimmy’s music began when I was a young Army lieutenant. At a unit cookout, my boss made a comment about having a “Cheeseburger in Paradise.” I looked into it, and I was hooked! From then on, when my Army career took me to less than desirable places, Jimmy and his music came with me. I recall running laps around Camp Able Sentry in Macedonia listening to “Barometer Soup,” and singing “Margaritaville” as I strolled through my command post in Kirkuk, Iraq (much to the dismay of my teammates.) Perhaps the pinnacle of my experience happened earlier this year—I was driving a Jeep up Mount Kilauea in Volcanoes National Park, with my family on board, when my daughter, who had put herself in charge of musical entertainment, added Jimmy’s “Volcano” to the playlist. It was a very proud moment!

With Jimmy’s music, it was not always about parties and beaches. More often than not, it was about surviving life’s hard knocks and coming out stronger and wiser. If you doubt that, have a listen to “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On,” which he wrote for New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. 

Jimmy Buffett was not everyone’s cup of tea. A friend referred to him as “the most successful one-hit-wonder in history.” As for me, Jimmy Buffet was a musical poet. He told truths, and he encouraged me to find joy in life. I am sad that Jimmy is gone, but we still have his music, and I will continue to heed his advice whenever I need him to remind me that “If we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane.”

248 years ago today, fighting broke out between the British Empire and its troublesome colonists in North America, changing the course of history. How would things have been different had this not happened? What if the British and the colonists had sorted out their differences?

Perhaps the British Empire would have become even more powerful in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, with the economic might of the would-be United States powering the British lion. The British Empire might have become a global hegemon. Perhaps the World War would not have happened, or it might have been mainland Europe against the British.

Perhaps slavery in North America would have ended without the bloodshed of the Civil War. The British outlawed slavery in 1833; this was a contentious event because of the British economy’s reliance on cotton, sugar, and tobacco from the Americans. Perhaps a British Parliament with the albatross of American slavery around its neck would not have had the courage to pass the Slavery Abolition Law. Had an overseas parliament banned slavery in the American colonies, would that have triggered a 19th Century American Revolution? Or would African Americans freed from bondage have avoided the horrors of a failed Reconstruction and Jim Crow?

Ultimately, that is not what happened. British grenadiers, light infantry, and marines marched out of Boston toward Concord, and the Lexington Militia turned out as a warning. Someone pulled a trigger. A few hours later the Massachusetts Militia opened fire on British troops guarding Concord Bridge and drove them from the field.

The fighting had begun, and the world would never be the same.