Lately, I’ve been looking at my students with increasing worry. They remind me of the drunken guest reeling among the rose bushes at four in the morning, waving a beer bottle and shouting endless choruses of “We Are the Champions” long after everyone else has left the party.

Imagine, as some people predict, that we are on the brink of an economic depression that could last for decades. If this comes to pass, then my students may face a future that they simply cannot reconcile with their inner sense of entitlement.

No one has prepared them for downward mobility. No one has taught them that limitless horizons sometimes have to be adjusted. No one has seriously discussed with them the possibility that one day they could be poor. Really poor. As in not being able to afford cell phones, ipods, video games, and cable TV. Really poor as in not being able to afford a car or the gas to run it. Really, really poor as in not being sure if there’s enough money for food.

I’ve always considered myself a reasonable man—a moderate man. I hope I’m not being overly alarmist. But I’ve been teaching kids for nearly a quarter of a century. I listen to them. I listen to their parents. I listen to what they believe and what they think the world is supposed to give them.

And if America is at the end of its real wealth, if the economic “downturn” continues, then God help us all. My students haven’t been raised to be moderate--about anything.

View Donald Gallinger's Official Website Blog at http://www.donaldgallinger.com/dons-blog.html

I’ve suffered from depression through various periods in my life. At times, it’s been truly debilitating. But no matter how low I’ve felt, there’s always been one true constant, one immutable star of faith and joy—rock ‘n roll.

I love rock n’ roll in the way a mother loves her children, the way a Jonathan Edwards loves an angry God—fervently, and with no will or desire to change one’s passionate devotion. How can you not love life when you hear the opening drum beats and bass line to “Hang On, Sloopy”? Or the stomping rhythms of “Wild Thing”?

And what better way to experience rock n’ roll than while driving your car? Speed, motion, freedom, drums, bass, lead guitar…

I’m an American, Jack. And I’ve got to groove.

How about you? What makes you happy? What’s your constant in this bad old world?

View Donald Gallinger's Official Website Blog at http://www.donaldgallinger.com/dons-blog.html