A Mid-Point

So, it's July 15. It's the middle now. The middle of the summer. The mid-point between the U2 concert in Philadelphia on May 14 and the U2 concert in Washington DC on October 20. Okay, I may be stretching that mid-point a bit. But I'm hopeful. I'm getting a bit anxious. Which is strange. After all, I lived my first 40+ years just fine without ever having gone to a U2 concert, now I find myself getting edgy for another one after just 2 months. This is not a good sign. And after last night's adventure, I found myself needing a some more U2 this afternoon. So I did it. I turned on my "Complete U2" in my iTunes while doing some laundry and just listened all afternoon. I didn't listen carefully, I just let myself bathe in my favorite tunage while I talked, and read, and drank coffee. It was good. And it led to a certain amount of reflection which I just need to share. So here it is.

I've discovered that my favorite band member is Adam Clayton. I discovered this at the concert. I continue to believe this as I listen to their music. He is the skeleton of the band. Without his strong bass, they could not stand or walk. And he is so humble in his crumpled pants and soft soled shoes. I think I like Adam best. He stands in the back and supports the songs with his bass. I love it ... you listen sometime and try to imagine the songs without his bass line ... they would be crass and shallow and crumple in a heap on the floor.

If Adam is the skeleton, Larry is the muscle and the drive and the energy. He gives the band it's get up and go. He pushes them around and gets them there on time or slows them down when they need to take it easy. As my drumming Lighthusband says, he's not the best drummer in the world, but he knows how to drum the best for this band. And that's what makes it work.

So, Adam and Larry are the skeleton and the muscle, but the Edge is the heart ... he keeps the oxygen flowing with his guitar. His chords are what keep us wanting more. They pop and flow ... like carbonation.

Bono is the mouth (like I had to tell you this) and the eyes. He sees and speaks and is a prophet to a certain extent. He is certainly the poet ... of course. He's the writer of most of the lyrics. So this makes a certain amount of sense ... at least it does to me.

Then I see here a real picture of what Paul was writing about in his letter to the church in Ephesus; they are a group of people functioning as a whole body. Any one of them on their own could not do as well, nor could any one of them be replaced. This is in contrast with the band I saw last night. Which, while being very good, has replaced one another on many different occassions without a care. It's a whole different paradigm. With Lost Dogs it seems that their songs and the tour is what's important, but I think I'm getting the idea from U2 that what's important to them is this idea that living in some kind of community is important. That it's the music, but it's also about all 4 of them ... AND the music. It's everything all together. That the music isn't quite as important as working out all of the other issues; or working out the other issues inspires the music; or both; or all of the above.