Baton Recital and David Byrne

It starts out as something simple. You think you are going to your daughter's baton recital, or whatever it is in which your child is performing or playing. You're not even that present at first - you've been rushing after work, trying to quickly prepare dinner, get everyone ready, get the child into their costume or uniform, tying down the hair, finding the equipment.

Then you're sitting there - it's hot in the bleachers or at the field, the seats are uncomfortable, you're crowded by the person sitting next to you. You're ready for it to be over with so you can go home.

Then it starts, and you're watching your child. And this strange transformation happens - you're watching this wonderful child, and you go inside your head and you say to to yourself, "Who is that child?" "I KNOW that's MY child, but how did we get to this point? How did I get here?"

And you seem to be living the David Byrne of the Talking Heads song, Once in a Lifetime. You may find yourself living in a shotgun shack. Or you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife, and you may ask yourself, 'How did I get here?'

And you're sitting there with your family all around you, and you feel tears streaming down your face. No one else around you is crying - it's a baton recital. Kids are twirling and catching and dropping batons, and shaking pom poms; parents are cheering - there's nothing to cry about. And you have a memory of your strong father, a military veteran, doing the same bewildering thing as he watched YOU on stage, many years ago. Oh, you understood it then, because you had a certain depth, an intuition, but you really get it now. Tears of joy. Of the water flowing out, underground. And you are awake again - this is a once in a lifetime experience. This is the only time you will be at this baton recital, and she will be that age, and you have all the people alive in your life you now have.

And all the lyrics to the David Byrne song make sense, in many ways -

Letting the days go by - MY GOD! What have I done!

Time isn't holding us, Time isn't after us. Time isn't holding us; Time is a pony ride.

You realize everything you've ever done, and everything you are, has led up to this moment. That's how you got here. This is the reality - this endless, eternal moment in time. You've been waking up worrying, about lots of things, including that horrible, nightmarish oil disaster spewing into the beautiful, fertile gulf of Mexico. The images come up in your consciousness, making you sick and scared for the future. But there's really not much you can do about that. Or maybe there is.

And as you sit there in the hot gym, you feel the love flowing out of you until it all flows together, as the waters find each other and become one. And you're connected again, to the gym, the recital, the audience, and the joyous little girl who is very present, a radiant smile on her face. And I think of all of you who have felt this moment; you, my family and friends, many of whom are now grandparents and are really seeing their connection to these things.

same as it ever was, same as it ever was. same as it ever was, same as it ever was.....

Let the love flow.