Everybody's Got A Hungry Heart and There Is a Meal for All

In keeping with the attempt to write a daily entry, this was written on Sunday, August 3, but posted a day late.

Although this journal is not intended to be a report of daily life, there are some exceptions - this being one.

Last night, Debbie and I attended our first Bruce Springsteen concert and all I can say is what a magnificent performance it was or, nor accurately, what a magnificent performer Srpingsteen is. I have to ask, why haven't we gone before?

I first had the opportunity to see Springsteen in 1974 when I was living and teaching in Omaha. While driving down Dodge Street, Omaha's main thoroughfare, I spotted a sign on the University of Nebraska at Omaha campus announcing a Bruce Springsteen concert. I had neither listened to nor heard of Springsteen and so, for reasons I won't understand or don't remember, I didn't give it a second thought. It was a few months later that Springsteen was on the cover of Time and Newsweek as the "Future of Rock and Roll" or something similar.

Thought of the Day: Oh well, for everything that I didn't do or haven't done or won't do, there are many that I have and that simply is the way of life. You try to fill it with as much as you can and appreciate those times.

Last night's concert was, by both Debbie's and my standards, one of the best we have seen - such energy by a true performer and musician at the age of (almost) 59, and the wonderful E Street Band with my favorite drummer, Max Weinberg, doing his "thing"; he plays drums with smoothness and a contained body movement - no unnecessary movements - that I love to watch (whether he's playing with Springsteen or on Conan O'Brien).

Thought of the Day: Perhaps I like to think that I live life in a contained way - doing all that needs to be done to produce the music of living, but not wasting too much energy on the unimportant, while also having a "smoothness" on my life's journey.

They played music we knew (but with a power that one can't get on recordings - there is something about "being there") and music that we didn't know but certainly enjoyed. The crowd certainly knew the music and everyone was on their feet for almost the entire concert (which was delayed, in part by a torrential rain, for over 90 minutes), but lasted until 12:30 a.m. (at which point we were stuck in the parking lot until close to 2:30 a.m. (but the company was good and we had a great time).

The Sringsteen audience was interesting and made me remember that aging goes on. Where were the twenty year old? What about most of the thrity year olds - there were some, but not many. Ah, I see the people in their 40's, 50;s and 60's, all with the energy of life and music pulsating through their changed bodies. Where before there had been salt flat hard abdomens, there were now Indian mound type protrusions - both on men and women. Upright shoulders were giving way to gentle ski slopes, while on the women in shorts, the once tight smooth and shapely legs of youth were now covered with moguls and on many of the men, the forested of hair was giving way (or had long ago abandoned the fight) to smooth glacial surfaces. A so goes the beat of the music and the beat of life - the beat of life continues like the beat of the music, but the looks change.

The other thought that I had watching the 40,000 - 50,000 was one of amazement (not new, but just re-emerging because of the sight) that there are so many people of different sizes, shapes, appearances, etc. and yet somehow, in a mysterious way that I can't comprehend, people find each other - for friendship, for love, for relationship. I guess it happens throughout the animal world, so perhaps it is not a high level thought process that leads to these bondings, but it still is amazing that so many, almost everyone, finds like minded people with whom they can relate. In some ways, it is like the music we were listening to - just as notes "relate" to create music, people "relate" to find each other and life.

Thought of the Day: I guess that the main advertising signs at the concert (held at Gillette Stadium) were on target (but not as the advertisers had intended) one set said "Fusion" and one set said "Fidelity".