Pearl Jam was amazing.
The letter I published here I had also sent directly to the band. I did end up having some exciting email exchanges with someone on that end but we ultimately got tickets from a kind soul who sold them to us at face value. And! Hear this Pearl Jam: I can thaw out some peaches and bake up a pie in just a few hours. If you are still in town, have your people contact my people and we’ll arrange it.
The whole thing was fun and funny…the family photo shoot, the enthusiasm and momentum created around achieving tickets-in-hand. Goodness, we had a great time this weekend hanging out, preparing for and eventually attending one epic concert.
While going to a concert isn’t *big picture* important, the way this unfolded got me thinking about big picture important stuff. Really it’s all the same, the big and the little. It’s all the same because your bigs and littles are different from your neighbors and are all important. Our daily paths are scripted by interactions and all it takes to make any situation different is one connection. We throw our energy out there for others to catch. And we catch the output of others. With every personal encounter, we leave a little something with each other. What a lucky power we all have: the power to connect, the power to give a situation brightness and love. Every single time we communicate with someone we have this opportunity. We are all people who seek authenticity and happiness. There is a lot of momentum there.
There was joyful momentum in the heartening interactions I had surrounding our ticket capture. And, holy smokes, there was other worldly momentum created during that concert last night. Thousands of people bobbing together, hands overhead, bodies vibrating. Pearl Jam creates unity and excitement when they perform. They played for hours, leaping about stage like giddy teenagers. They do what they love and share it with others. We get to catch it. It’s awesome.
And I freaking love how politically active and vocal they are. I think most of you know where I lean, I’ve written about it before. But I sometimes still feel cautious when sharing my opinion. Why? Will you be offended? Maybe but probably not. I am certainly able to disagree with a person’s yard sign and still want to hear what they have to say. I imagine most people are this way. I imagine most people who like coming here to my space choose respectful, kind interactions to create the momentum in their lives. And having an opinion and voting is SO important. I attended the Tester rally with my kids yesterday and was reminded that he won by a few thousand votes in the last election. A few thousand votes. I was interviewed by our local paper which always makes me nervous, especially when my two year-old is tugging on my skirt and I wish I had taken time to reapply deodorant. But certainly, stretched hems, distracted attention and stinky pits are little and normal things. Having my kids understand the importance of supporting candidates that reflect our family’s values and them hearing me say it out loud in front of them is a big thing. To me.
Yesterday, the smoke lifted. I spent time with my family. We ate yogurt muffins, attended a political rally and a birthday party at the carousel. I obsessively checked my email waiting for tickets to emerge and they did. We called every eligible babysitter in the valley, achieving success at the last minute. My brother-in-law, sister-in-law, husband and I ate bar-b-qued ribs and salad as fast as we could just before kissing our our mac-n-cheese gobbling kids goodbye, piling in the wagon around car seats and landing at the base of Mount Sentinel with thousands of people who wanted to dance, sing and feel something big.
