Advice From Our Nobel Laureate

It hasn’t been my week, and if you’re a UIC student, odds are it hasn’t been your week either. It seems our role in the world is now set in stone. But for those of you managing to sleep solely by picturing the progress taking place outside the US, you’re not alone.

Who loves Bob Dylan? The Nobel Committee and myself, apparently. We may not be bearing down on the most progressive four years our country has ever had, but it is our duty as citizens of a globalized society to support positive measures inside and outside of our country.

Music that gets you through an uncertain time is worth sharing. Dylan’s gift to us this year is his writing, reminding us that a step backwards doesn’t mean a change in direction. The progress we have made isn’t gone for good. I await its inevitable reemergence with poetry that has withstood the test of war, civil rights, and time:

“Come gather ’round people Wherever you roam And admit that the waters Around you have grown And accept it that soon You’ll be drenched to the bone If your time to you is worth savin’ Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin’

Come writers and critics Who prophesize with your pen And keep your eyes wide The chance won’t come again And don’t speak too soon For the wheel’s still in spin And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’ For the loser now will be later to win For the times they are a-changin’

Come senators, congressmen Please heed the call Don’t stand in the doorway Don’t block up the hall For he that gets hurt Will be he who has stalled There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’ It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls For the times they are a-changin’

Come mothers and fathers Throughout the land And don’t criticize What you can’t understand Your sons and your daughters Are beyond your command Your old road is rapidly agin’ Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand For the times they are a-changin’

The line it is drawn The curse it is cast The slow one now Will later be fast As the present now Will later be past The order is rapidly fadin’ And the first one now will later be last For the times they are a-changin’”

For everyone at UIC, have a peaceful week.