More to this blog than living and dying...

I'm old.  It brings aches and pains.  Pleasant smiles remembering days that seemed so recent and it turns out they were a LONG time ago.

Yesterday I bought tickets for Becky and I to go see Steven Curtis Chapman, Andrew Peterson, and Josh Wilson playing in the south suburbs of Cleveland.  This isn't my first time seeing SCC or AP.

Backstory.  Over 20 years ago I was a regular volunteer to setup Christian music concerts that rolled through Lancaster.  With a great springboard from station WJTL there are many concerts that hit that area.  At the time I was naive as to what a great opportunity this was.  To me it was just better than sitting bored at home.

This process generally went as follows:

• Show up around 11am - setup chairs, tables, etc.
• Unload a truck that rolled up around noon.
• Setup speakers, lights, soundboard, drumkits, guitars, etc.
• Soundcheck and we get to go eat.
• Take tickets, run spotlight, be security, etc. during the show.
• Tear it all down, pack it up, load it up.  Go home around midnight.

Now it was not expected, but about 50% of the time the artist or stage manager would gather the volunteers as the truck was almost loaded and hand out some swag.  This was t-shirts, stickers, cassettes or later in my volunteer career CDs.  It always felt like Christmas.


One of the regulars making stops there was Steven Curtis Chapman.  I was always a SCC fan.  I had a "More to this Life" t-shirt that was well worn through my late teens (thanks stage manager).  He put on a fun show with a nice variety in song pace and humor and heart.  I also had a side benefit.  I was a 13 y/o with a blonde mullet walking around with an official badge.  SCC would mention about his family and kids and I would shortly get asked "are you his son?".  I'm thinking it was about twenty times I have been asked that question.  Awesome everytime.

Also awesome because it was better to be asked if I was somehow related to fame rather than to be questioned on my gender.

For the record, this picture is embarrassing; but it is the best from the era (I was 15, my last year with a mullet), and the one when I was 13 was more embarrassing.

I'm now at the other end by strictly being a concert viewer.  I have a long history of seeing SCC live and am excited for the upcoming show too.  I get to see it with my wife.  Early in our college and dating time we went to downtown Pittsburgh to catch SCC playing. 

This time Steven is playing with my absolute favorite storysinger - Andrew Peterson.  I also saw him early in his career when he opened for Caedmon's Call at Grove City College ('97).  That was also a date with Becky.


It is good to look back on the magic moments and memories.  I can't think of a better evening enjoying two key musical elements from key times of my life and having my wife to share them with.

The Strange Music by G. K. Chesterton
Other loves may sink and settle, other loves may loose and slack,
But I wander like a minstrel with a harp upon his back,
Though the harp be on my bosom, though I finger and I fret,
Still, my hope is all before me: for I cannot play it yet.

In your strings is hid a music that no hand hath e'er let fall,
In your soul is sealed a pleasure that you have not known at all;
Pleasure subtle as your spirit, strange and slender as your frame,
Fiercer than the pain that folds you, softer than your sorrow's name.

Not as mine, my soul's annointed, not as mine the rude and light
Easy mirth of many faces, swaggering pride of song and fight;
Something stranger, something sweeter, something waiting you afar,
Secret as your stricken senses, magic as your sorrows are.

But on this, God's harp supernal, stretched but to be stricken once,
Hoary time is a beginner, Life a bungler, Death a dunce.
But I will not fear to match them-no, by God, I will not fear,
I will learn you, I will play you and the stars stand still to hear.