To our friends in Australia,
We don’t know what to say.
i’m sorry. We’re sorry.
We’ll start there.
Why? Why does it snow in one place and rain in another while a third place burns?
Why is life like that?
The following words kept me up most of last night. This came in an email from a friend in Melbourne:
“A few days ago i read a text message that a mother had received from her son who was trapped in the fire – it was his goodbye. This woman broke down in front of me at the thought of never seeing her son again…”
My friend went on to say that he had stood on what used to be a football ground. He said that 56 people had evacuated to this place at the last minute, believing it was safe because it was away from the trees. All 56 of them were killed.
i don’t know what to do with stories like that. i don’t know what to say in response.
i suppose we just want to say that this has our attention, and that we’re going to do everything we can to help. We’re talking to friends, especially in Melbourne, to see what’s being done and how we can get involved. Rich, Chris and i head to Australia for Soundwave Festival next week, a trip we already had planned, before the fires. The timing is certainly surprising. It hit me late last night in reading that email from my friend, that we have to do something, we have to respond. We have to be creative and do what we do best… i emailed some of our friends who are playing Soundwave, guys who are part of our story. Amazing to think we’ll be over there with some of our close friends (Anberlin, Bayside, Aaron Gillespie) in a moment like this. Everyone is willing to help, to say this matters, to do something in response, to go beyond just saying words from a stage…
In closing, i just want to say that our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Australia right now, especially those that have lost ones and homes. We don’t want to offer you cheap answers. We do want to say that your questions matter to us, your pain matters to us. Your families, your towns, your stories, your memories. Real things. They matter. You matter.
As much as possible, across an internet and across all the oceans, we want to say that we’re with you right now. Australia is a place that moves us, that matters to us – i mean that personally, that i fell in love with Australia last year. We’re excited to go back and we hope to see you soon.
Peace to you, from all of us in Florida and around the world.
jamie
We will be at all five dates: Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. (Yes, Perth!) Look for the TWLOHA tent and check the calendar for more info.