Precedent

The economy is the only issue on the minds of most people. From young to old, rich to not so rich, we're all thinking about it. I still can't seem to get my head around how it's all happening, but it is and I'm trying to keep up. For those of us who are young and in our first "real" job, starting life and looking ahead, this is our first big dose of reality on the national scale. Even with 9/11, i was still too young to feel it myself. I saw it, experienced it, but it didn't shake up my world like this could.

It's scary.
Mainly because I don't understand it, though I know I'll be affected by it.

Then today I thought of my 82 year old grandmother. i thought of a generation who grew up in a decade long depression, and lived and fought through the Greatest War the world has ever seen. What did they think about? What was their outlook? How could they have thought things were going to get better?

And I think of my parents, who felt the chill of Cold War. Who waded through the endless nights of Vietnam, oil shortages and rampant inflation.

This is not a pro-USA note trying to say, "We pull through, we always do." I'm not naive. But, there's hope to see that life isn't always about a mortgage, 401K, or job security.

And there's precedent.
In the voice of my Grandmother.
In the eyes of my Father.

Game Changers

The past week has brought an interesting analogy to the world of politics and the American landscape. Sarah Palin's rocket launch into the world of everyday America has many calling her a "game changer". The type of player who forces their opponents to revert to different tactics, to scrap previous plans and adjust accordingly, because if you don't, you lose. She has changed the entire dynamic of the election. The star power and bravado Barak Obama brought to the national stage over the last year was just as powerful, and his rise almost as fast. Both of these personalities have sparked the attention of average Americans, much like an incredible sporting event does, or a Soprano's series finale.

A "game changer", as the term is used for Palin, turns a situation upside down, on its head. You have to start over.

We're all looking for that type of moment. The moment in our lives where things go blurry, fade, black, and then upside down. Granted, we want it to go for the better, but we want the game changer, we need the game changer. How it comes... well, that's the risk, the Hail-Mary pass. It fails most of the time but once in awhile, it changes careers, lives, loves, and us. It changes US.

It can come with a team picking up that one player, the last piece of the messy puzzle that makes things work, puts you over the top and turns a franchise around for years to come. It can come by doing something so unexpected everyone has to sit a little closer to the edge of their seat to see or hear what you're about to say. It can come when a church is in the midst of a step that could change the course of its future. Something risky, that people may not respond to. They need the game changer.

It's scary. But a good shake up is what we all need.

Or, it can come while you sit in a car with friends, having a conversation that changes you. The kind where for the first time things are revealed, exposed, and brought to light. Where it doesn't seem so bad and for the first time in a long time you're able to breathe life, freedom, and ease into the situation.

Change is dynamic.

Change has been the tired, yet effective dynamic of this election year. It plays. Now and always. You know it when you see it. You feel a new dynamic when its there. It's here on both sides. Which way you go is up to you. But to say it's not here, and that you don't need it is even more risky. Not just on the national stage, but on the personal.

Where will it come from?
How will it show itself?
When will your life be turned upside down?

In the middle of a conversation?

It did for me.

Love (III)

Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,
Guiltie of dust and sinne.
But quick-ey’d Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
If I lack’d any thing.

A guest, I answer’d, worthy to be here:
Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkinde, ungratefull? Ah my deare,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?

Truth Lord, but I have marr’d them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, sayes Love, who bore the blame?
My deare, then I will serve.
You must sit down, sayes Love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.

- George Herbert

Mayer (Say what you need to Say)

I went to see John Mayer in concert Sunday night in West Palm Beach. This was my third Mayer show, second at the outdoor amphitheater venue in West Palm, and each time I see his show, it gets better and better.

What a way to spend the Sunday before Labor Day, when you know Monday is a day off to do whatever your heart wishes. Fifteen of us made the 45 minute drive to WPB for some tailgating before the show began. Sun out, beer in hand, music playing, and friends all around, all we needed was a decent show and I would have deemed it a very good day.

What we got was more than a decent show. It was great.

I'm not the litmus test for this. Asking someone who is a fan of an artist, or someone who is already supporting a candidate to evaluate a performance or a speech isn't very helpful. They're already a fan and most likely approved. But I love watching those that are skeptical or unimpressed, and asking them if they were swayed in anyway to think differently. And for many reasons, there are always those skeptical about John Mayer.

The coolest part of the night was not how great his surrounding band was.
They're great.
Or how great the set list was.
It was great.
Or even how they were doing everything they could for the last show of the tour to be the best.
They did and it was great.
The coolest part was watching some of my friends who didn't like Mayer and who just came along for the party, get into the show and walk away fans.

I'll just share three highlights from the show.

1) During the encore, Mayer pulled out the Eddie Van Halen guitar and did a pretty great, although nothing drastically different, version of "Panama". Mayer ripped on the guitar while his other band mate sang the lead. Needless to say, the
crowd went ballistic.

2) Vultures/Gravity - This was my third time seeing Mayer since the Trio/Continuum releases, and each time the tandem songs of "Vultures" and "Gravity" steal the show. With long jam sections within, the show hits a level where Mayer is at his best, on the guitar, vocally, and lyrically. The show hit a 10 on the cool meter.

3) The surprising moment for me, and the highlight of the show Sunday night came during "Say". Since its release as a single earlier this year, I never particularly liked the song, but Sunday night it stole the show. I can't quite even say why, but the show took the next step. There were three or four of us that felt the same way. "Say" is a song that flexes Mayer's pure songwriting skills. Something he seems to get better and better at as the years go by.

You can always count on him entertaining the crowd between songs as well, with one of the more self-deprecating on stage personalities in music.

All in all, another great show, another great crowd and time for friends. And the best part of it all for the thousands there...

No work on Monday.