Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of Passage? His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a MAN. He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own. The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man! Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm. We, too, are never alone. Even when we don't know it, God is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him.







Let's be more aware of all the choices, situations, twists and turns that brought us to this place right here and now. They May Be Miracles.



Sunday, May 16, 2010

Good Things Come To Those Who......SPEAK!!!

Ok, it's been over a week since this happened and I wanted to write about it right away, but with the weather so nice...yada, yada, yada...anyway...gotta share a fun story that happened Friday, May 7th.  Facebook friends could skip this one unless you want to know more details since I plastered the story all over the following day.


So, early in the afternoon last Friday my sister-in-law, Michelle, called up and asked me if I wanted to go see Ryan Star sing in concert at a bar later that night.  Not really knowing who Ryan Star was I still said, "sure" because anytime someone invites me to go see a concert I'm pretty much game for that.  She did say that he has a song on the radio right now called, "Breathe," but honestly, I listen to mostly kids silly songs, some Hannah Montana, some Praise and Worship, some Celtic, and various other songs I deem appropriate for my kids to listen to...not much radio.  Still, I was excited to get out for the night and listen to some live rock music!! 

So a local radio station had been advertising the concert all week I guess and Michelle knew the concert started at 7:00.  We thought we'd get there at 6:30 to get a table and order something for dinner and drink.  When we arrived we went to the concert area doors and asked the waitress coming out if we could go in and get a table.  She went in to ask someone else, came out and said no, that the doors wouldn't be opening until 8:00.  8:00?...we asked, we thought the show started at 7:00.  "Nope, 8:00" says she.  So we decided to go get a table and eat, wait a while, and then try to go in again.  At some point during the VERY, VERY slow service we did start to see others entering the concert area.  At another point during the VERY, VERY slow serviced meal Michelle saw through the windows that Ryan Star was up on the stage singing.  We decided he was doing a sound check for later.  Around 8:00 pm we finally received our check, paid, and went over to the doors to go in the concert area and get a table.  

Not knowing where to sit really and thinking now that the concert wouldn't start until 8:30 or 9:00 we decided to go to the bar and order a couple of beers.  We took our beers and went out to the patio area.  Both of us being the middle child we argued back and forth about where to sit and it sounded like this, "I don't know, what do you think?  I don't know, what do you think?  There would be good.  Sure that's fine, unless you want to go there.  Yeah, that looks like a good place.  But you had said you wanted to go there, let's just go there.  Sure, whatever you want."  Except it may have taken longer than that.   When we finally sat down and made few jokes about the enormous size of our beers and how horrible our view would be of the stage from where we were sitting, Michelle saw Ryan Star walking around on the patio and talking to people.  This was her first clue that we may have missed something.

She told me she was going to go up and talk to him.  I told her to go right ahead, I'd stay and guard the beers.  (I wasn't in on this part but it went something like this)  She introduced herself and I guess had asked him if he already performed.  HE HAD!!!!  WE TOTALLY MISSED THE CONCERT!!!  She explained to him how we had come early, tried to get in and they wouldn't let us, and then with the place being so packed had pretty slow service and did not get to see him perform.  As he was signing a poster for her Ryan told Michelle that if we'd follow him/them (he and a couple of his people) out to his car that he would perform a song at his car for us.  (Good things come to those who speak!!)

Michelle came over to me and reported to me that we would be following Ryan to his car so that he could sing a song for us there.  Now, I had just had a dream the night before that I was at a bar (which is strange b/c I haven't been in a bar for ions) and that someone had drugged my drink.  Altogether strange dream.  But sitting there hearing her say that we would be walking away from our beers made me think of that dream and I was hesitant.  She skipped like a schoolgirl -- ran like a crazed fan -- swiftly walked over to the gate to follow him out.  I sat at our table still - not knowing whether to go or stay and guard the drinks.  I decided that getting sung to by a rock star was worth leaving the drinks behind and that if they were still there once we returned we'd just send them back and not drink.  So I swiftly walked over to catch up and played a game of catch to get to them at his car.  He pulled out his guitar and as I approached I took this picture with Michelle's phone:



Well, after this picture was taken the battery on Michelle's very cool touch phone had worn out.  So we couldn't get a picture of him with us.  So, he asked the woman from Atlantic Records who was with him to please take a picture with her Blackberry and email it to us.  (Later once we received the photo and saw that it was completely blurry we realized we couldn't use it for anything).  I never even thought to offer my little no nothing phone (not a touch or blackberry or keyboard...just a regular flip phone)...if I had, I could have even taken video...just never crossed my mind with all these other fancy phones in front of me!!

Anyway, he asked us which song we wanted him to sing and since Michelle wasn't sure if I had heard "Breathe" or not she requested it.  So here's the official video of that song if you want to hear it:


Well, he's singing the song to us and about half-way through during the chorus Michelle starts singing along and he's like, "cool" -- so when it gets to the next chorus I thought I'd join in.  Unfortunately I hadn't heard much of the song while he was singing it because I was thinking about lots of other things like, "wow, this is cool...a rock star singing a song just for us!" ... and, "gosh, I wish I could just press that part of his ear in so it wasn't sticking out."... and, "for all the hundreds of times I went to concerts and my friends and I joked about how the rock star was looking RIGHT AT ME, this time the rock star really is looking right at Michelle and I!!!"  So when the chorus came I kind of sounded something like this, "Breeeeeeathe, just breeeeeathe, mdkdjakdkalkfjaklfkj AND breeeeeathe, just breeeeeeeeeeathe mmmmmmmmmmm......." Yea, not the best decision I ever made...he looked up at my attempt to sing along and had to look back at his guitar I think not to break out laughing!!!!

So when it was all said and done Michelle and I headed back to the bar.  I bought us two new beers so that we wouldn't drink the ones left sitting there.  She only ever took a few sips of hers because she was going to drive and we were about done for the evening.  We laughed about many, many, many things that women sit around and laugh about...well, schoogirls and women who have a case of the "sillies" - and then we drove as fast as we could to her house so that we could post the picture and update our statuses on facebook to tell everyone what we had just experienced!  A fun time and great experience.

A fun night out with a tiny lesson mixed in:
Saying nothing usually gets you nothing and nowhere.
Saying something might not always get the fantastic results you're hoping for...but sometimes it might just get you something you never imagined!!

7 comments:

Amber at The Musings of ALMYBNENR said...

Wow! That is really great! I haven't heard of him but meeting anyone famous is so exciting, especially when they are so considerate to do something like that for a fan!

DUSTINE said...

aLmYbNeNr,
I know, right? That's a performer who gets it...appreciates the fans and goes the extra mile. Nice guy...I told him I'd start listening more to his stuff and spread the word.

Anonymous said...

Just for the story of this guy singing just for the two of you alone, I want to see him succeed.

Then seeing the video you linked on youtube - Wow! If this Ryan Star does not deserve great things for trying to help people find jobs, I don't know who does. He seems like a very caring guy - and really talented.

He is number one on my countdown!

DUSTINE said...

Anonymous,
GREAT POINT which I forgot to mention! So glad you brought that up! He does try to help people find jobs...that's what the whole "Breathe" song is based on. Thanks for bringing that up!!

LibbyLibbyLibbyLibbyLibby said...

I totally love your 'tiny lesson'... could make an actual quote. love it! :)

DUSTINE said...

Thanks Libby...I think it applies to many situations. :-)

Seeds Of Faith said...

What a great blog! Coming over from Seeds Of Faith and wanted to say hi!

Come check out our iFellowship blog meme on Wednesdays starting at 12:00 AM CST and link up any of your blogs, facebook accts, twitter accts, etc. We welcome all christian moms!

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