Depending on your year of birth and musical inclination you might remember Ambrosia, a band which started life in the mid ’70s as an eclectic prog rock ensemble and gradually moved into a more pop direction. While never a major player in the music scene it notched a few hits still occasionally gracing the oldies side of your radio dial, this particular song (the video is someone’s homemade job) being its first foray into Top 40 land:
The song came to mind a short time ago when a friend passed on a news item about a woman in Australia labeled the world’s oldest blogger passing away a few days ago at the age of 108. The notation about how I’ll consider it something of a minor miracle should I notch three-quarters of that total before shuffling off this mortal coil, with some days leading me to wonder if half is a more realistic assumption (no, not being morose here, just noting the detrimental effects of being a stress monster) aside, reading about how Olive Riley spent her time chronicling living history and enjoying the fruits of online community does offer cause for reflection.
There are days I look at the Internet and grouse about its seeming predilection for being a perpetual pubescent wasteland, to slightly modify a line from this Who classic:
It’s a bit odd watching this clip to think how Ms. Riley outlived half a band whose members were/are some forty-five years her junior. Rock and roll doesn’t always keep you young. But I digress.
Amidst all the snark and cynicism that on occasion pervades these electronic pages, it’s good to note the simple joy of a life well lived, especially how the one who lived it seized on a tool created just a few years shy of her ninetieth birthday. The pleasure of creating, communicating and sharing; these far too often become obscured in a time where seemingly everyone does everything with an agenda in mind that demands finding an edge and making ones mark by any means available. Ms. Riley offered something different. She gave us a simple sharing of her life. For this, we are all the richer.
Here’s to you, young lady.
