THE FUTURIST [Verse 1] I won’t know my great grandkids when their hair is turning gray. But the world I leave behind me will be with them every day. They may never hear my laugh, never see my face. But they’ll live with my decisions. When they grow up in this place. [Pre-Chorus] We call them distant generations like that makes them far away. But they called us “someday.” Now we’re standing in their place. [Chorus] We have to try [choral echo] We have to build We have to care For the kids, [choral echo] and their kids, and theirs. For the hands we’ll never hold, for the burdens they’ll inherit when our hands have let them go. Let them say we saw it coming. Let them say we chose to care. We were here. They’ll be here. Do it now for them, and theirs. [Verse 2] I could leave behind a fortune. I could leave behind a name. But what good’s a golden frame if there’s nothing left to save? I don’t need them to remember every dream I couldn’t keep. I just want them making wishes with a little room to dream. [Pre-Chorus] Every “that’s somebody’s problem” puts a weight in someone’s hands. Someone young enough to trust us. Someone learning how to stand. [Chorus] We have to try We have to build We have to care For the kids, and their kids, and theirs. For the hands we’ll never hold, for the burdens they’ll inherit when our hands have let them go. Let them say we saw it coming. Let them say we chose to care. We were here. They’ll be here. Do it now for them, and theirs. [Bridge: voice close, instruments recede] If my grandmother had given up, what would that have meant for me? I’m alive inside her future Because she chased her dreams Now the years are passing through me. Now there’s something I can do. I can love beyond the people I will live to say it to. [Final Chorus: rising, layered voices] We have to try We have to build We have to care For the kids, and their kids, and theirs. Let them have the ordinary: summer rain and breathable air. Let them fall in love with living. Let them have a life to spare. Let them grow beyond our answers. Let them find what we couldn’t dare. We have to try We have to build We have to care For the kids, and their kids, and theirs. We were here. They’ll be here. Let there still be wonder when they get here. [Outro: voice alone] They don’t owe us our dream. We owe them the chance to dream theirs.
