Last night we celebrated Chad and Erica’s 30th birthdays. It was a GREAT party: good food, good weather, good company, and good music, all on top a wonderful media retrospective Chad put together of the last decade of their lives. (A LOT has happened in ten years!) I’m hoping Chad will post (or at least make available) the walk down memory lane (nudge, nudge) so that all of you who couldn’t make it can share in the joy, sorrow, laughter and tears.
The sweetest part of the night for me, however, was gathering around the firepit with approximately 87 guitars to sing and play everything from 80s hair-band rock to classic James Taylor, from John Mayer to Roy Orbison, from oldie-but-goodie worship to the Counting Crows and U2, plus a few original tunes thrown in for good measure. I didn’t sing very much, and I play guitar about as well as I juggle (not at all, in case you’re wondering), but just listening was an incredibly powerful experience. My insides were bubbling over in humbled joy that these people and their music belong to me.
I know that sounds weird. I don’t own my friends or their music. (Though with the money to be made on their talents, a little slice would be nice.) But I mean “belong” in a mystical way: the gift of friends and the music they make are a gift, and the exercise of friendship and music-making in turn creates a place of belonging for all of us. Everyone around that firepit belonged there, bound by the people and the music we could only make together.
It made me think about the Church. I think maybe this is how the Body of Christ is meant to work. Each of us is given each other and a handful of gifts, and it’s in exercising those relationships and gifts that we belong to each other, making the world we can only make together. If you took one person away from the firepit last night, the music and camaraderie would have been fundamentally changed; in the same way, the world God is redeeming through us needs each of us, belonging to Him and each other.
My insides are bubbling over again, humbled to belong in my own feeble way.
I vote for Chad to post the retrospective. ‘Sounds like it was a meaningful time - wish I could have been there. Strolling down memory lane would be the next best thing.
Totally… I would love to post it…
I guess it’s just a little bit of a leap to go from writing about your life to actually posting the visual information for the world to see. Believe it or not, I am getting a little more private in my old age.
:)
However, as the whole thing was meant to be a love letter to everyone I know and love, I do want to find a way to share it with you all.
Hey all!
Well listen, I think I have a compromise. I am waiting for Mike to show up online, or I might just post it on an FTP has has set up for me, but I have shrunk the video to iPod size, which is about 100 megs. It looks great.
I have decided that I don’t want to post it on the open forum. Why you ask? I don’t know. It’s parenthood… it does things to you. For some reason, posting a series of pics for the world to see that include my precious kids seems… well… not prudent.
However, once we get it up, those of you who are interested can email me or Mike and we’ll tell you how to get your hands on it. It’s meant to be a love letter to everyone who made our last decade so special, and I can’t wait for some of you to see it.
Sorry for the paranoia.
Yeah, that was fun. I remember saying to my dad that that hour was just about one of the most pleasant I’ve ever spent in my life. It took me back to the old days of my teenagerhood, spent in community theatre, sitting round the firepit and singin’ after the shows were over.
Good tiiiimes…