Hi Guys.
i hope this finds you well, enjoying your Saturday night or Sunday morning or wherever this finds you. i am on an airplane, flying from New York City to Portland – somewhere over the middle states at the moment – headed to Portland for the last stop of this summer’s Vans Warped Tour. i’m excited to see Chris and Jason from our team, Alex and Ivory from Invisible Children, Bryce and The Rocket Summer guys. Excited to meet The Summer Set as well. Our team has spent the last eight weeks living and travelling with these folks, setting up and tearing down each day, finding shade under tents and hope in favorite songs, surprised along the way by stories and moments and conversations. We are more than grateful to Kevin, Sarah and Kate who run Warped Tour and allow TWLOHA to be part of it. This is our fourth summer and it’s truly become one of our favorite things, a vehicle that allows us to connect with thousands of music-loving young people across the USA and Canada for two months each year. We are fans of music and our message of hope and help is one for people, and so we keep coming back.
That’s all i’m going to say about Warped for now. i’ve asked Chris and Jason to share more, to take you into their world, tell some stories and paint some pictures…
On a different note…
My friend Jon, in addition to being my friend, is one of my heroes. Jon is the sort of person who stops to talk to homeless people. He is the one who said to me that people get stuck in moments and he is also the one who told me, in a difficult season, “Hope is not a myth.” Though Jon and i live in the same city, i had not seen him in months. This was my fault. We met for coffee yesterday morning and the conversation was deeply personal and meaningful for me. i shared some things that were hard to share, talked about feeling lost in my story. i don’t know why but i expected my words to be met with disappointment and judgement – shame has a way of telling us we deserve those things. Instead, and this happened several times at meals with friends this week, i was met with grace and compassion and kindness, people saying i could call them in the middle of the night and people saying we should hang out again soon.
Anyway, near the end of my conversation with Jon, he asked if i had read the book Life After God by Douglas Coupland. When i said no, Jon stood up instantly, walked out of the coffee shop and straight to a book store a few blocks away.
i finished the book just now, started it yesterday and finished it today (i am never that guy. That said, it’s worth noting that the book is short and has a lot of pictures). i’m writing all of this to tell you that it was great, that it put words to things i’ve been feeling recently, questions i’d been afraid to ask and things i’d been afraid to say. The book is fiction and, for me, it was a book about the human condition, which is to say it is a book about the feelings, realities, miracles and questions that we all experience as people living life on this planet, getting older over time, reflecting on our stories. The book is painful at times. The book is also beautiful. The storyteller’s voice reminded me of Charlie from The Perks of Being a Wallflower, if Charlie were to tell us another story years down the road. The writing is honest and raw. i found it full of truth.
i want to share a couple quotes from Life After God:
“When you’re young, you always feel that life hasn’t yet begun — that “life” is always scheduled to begin next week, next month, next year, after the holidays — whenever. But then suddenly you’re old and the scheduled life didn’t arrive. You find yourself asking, ‘Well then, exactly what was it I was having — that interlude — the scrambly madness — all that time I had before?’
“I realized a capacity for not feeling lonely carried a very real price, which was the threat of feeling nothing at all.”
“A need burns inside us to share with others what we are feeling. Beyond a certain age, sincerity ceases to feel pornographic. It is though the coolness that marked our youth is itself a retrovirus that can only leave you feeling empty.”
Peace to you tonight, from this airplane headed west.
jamie
PS: i hope the book finds you like a friend. Also, i hope you find some people and i hope you let them know you. It’s very important. The fear is a lie. It will be worth it in the end.
PS2: If you’re at Warped Tour in Oregon tomorrow, do say hello.