Dear Wesley from the Lumineers, This is a love letter of sorts, but I'm writing it with my husband's permission On Friday, March 13, we were scheduled to see you play at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. My husband and I met at a concert over 17 years ago, so live music is kind of in our relationship's DNA. Your concert was on our bucket list of live music. In anticipation of your show, we listened to your new album, iii, on repeat. In the kitchen, while we worked, in AirPods as we exercised. That music became the soundtrack to the end of our winter. At the time, we were dealing with a difficult parenting situation, and the tragic family story interwoven in that album became cathartic. We watched your videos on repeat, too. Your music, sad as it was, gave us hope. Eventually you postponed the show as COVID-19 spread. My feelings of uncertainty and fear of the pandemic overshadowed my sadness about your show, though. We would see you again. The last few weeks, collectively, have been hard. I'm safe at home with my family, but I'm scared for the future. I'm grieving missed opportunities. Many days feel like Groundhog Day. I don't need to list all of my worries here; I'm sure you have your own. Yesterday, though, you provided a gift. As I browsed through Facebook, I saw your face. And your guitar! You were doing a live show to raise money for restaurant workers. I called my husband upstairs, and we contributed some money, settling in as you played song after song, long past the scheduled 30 minutes. Great music often makes me cry. Soon tears were flowing down my cheeks as you sang "Angela." Home at last.... You shared the story behind "Gun Song," and I thought of my own dad, sheltered in place with my mom on my childhood farm in Iowa. Things I knew when I was young... "Ho Hey" took me back to kitchen dance parties with my adopted sons when they first joined our family eight years ago. I belong with you, you belong with me... You even threw in a cover of Coldplay's "Green Eyes," a song that will forever remind me of the season of falling in love with my husband. You're the one that I wanted to find... So thanks, Wesley. For the more than $25,000 you raised for restaurant workers and for giving us exactly what we needed yesterday afternoon. We hope to see you in the fall. Stay safe. Love, Kim
1 Comment
4/5/2020 11:45:33 pm
I love how you used the epistolatory form to explore what you and your family are feeling. I do think this quietest of times is a call to record what we are experiencing. KEEP WRITING.
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September 2020
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