The first blog of the tour usually sets the stage for what the rest of the trip will be, and this summer is no exception…except that it feels like even more of a necessity now than ever.
As we drive through so much of this country, I see land. Land that people were pushed from and religions started on. Wars fought where battles brought victories to revel in and defeats that left behind scars and so many dead. Rights were stolen, won, and stolen again, and again, and again. Crops were raised to feed the nation, crops were shriveled up and families starved. Babies were born in one-room homes and huge cities full of medical advancements saved millions through science and technology. Temperatures changed, lakes ran dry, and animals moved. People got curious, got smart, got dumb, got complacent….The list literally could go on for days, weeks, months…
In the short time our country has been a country so many things have happened all over the land here. It’s easy to take for granted that it will always be here, always be a foundation for our inconsequential drive for bigger and better. Always be a launchpad for our absurd ideas and wanderlust. Always be a giant rock where we “think” we are actually making a difference with all our “talking points” and our wars and our causes and our, and our, and our. But none of it matters if we are just shaking our fists at each other and screaming into the abyss of ears and “believing” in literally anything. None of it matters. And, if none of it matters, then ALL of it matters. It HAS to.
Once we realize that we are all just a discarded jug of pee on the great highway of life, we are free. Free to get up and change the narrative. We empty ourselves out and release the toxins, wash our insides, fill ourselves up with something useful or beautiful or both, and start distributing that new mixture of useful beauty with as much tenacity and fire as we ever could. Because now is when we need it most. Now, when the voices of hatred and anger seem to be louder than ever is our time to help heal the very land we stand on by quenching it’s deep thirst with our cocktail of useful beauty that is our music, our commitment to love, and the very soul of the human being.
Join us this summer as we fight the good fight and raise our voices above the noise, collecting in the clouds, and rain down some joy and some useful beauty on a parched and broken land that needs us.
