WHAT MATTERS

In the midst of the political madness brought on by the actually unpatriotic (on some levels "traitorous"—at least by their own past standard use of that term for those who opposed them) positions and behavior of the right...

...it was nice to spend an afternoon being reminded of what matters as I watched my thirteen-year-old and his almost thirteen-year-old nephew play two side by side drum sets on a stage before several hundred audience members at their "rock" camp.

They backed two different sets of musicians. On their first time out they backed an older teenage boy singer, and and older teenage girl guitar player, and their twelve-year-old friend making his debut on lead guitar. The spirit and the commitment, but especially the talent of the two Lally boys and their friend was so refreshing it made up for any disillusion caused by the inability of any force to stop the continuing damage being done to our country by the forces of rightwing corporate power (turns out Murdoch only paid 6% in taxes this year and General Electric is moving its x-ray division to China...ad infinitum).

Then they came out later to back an eleven-year-old new friend playing a song he wrote for guitar and played with the help of an instructor on an amped acoustic. On this number the two boys on drums, my little guy and grandson, could be seen and heard even better as they matched each other in keeping the groove solid while appearing nonchalant about it in their matching black-rimmed non-prescription-for-style-only glasses (my grandson in an LA baseball hat and my youngest in a summer panama style fedora).

My heart overflowed as they brought home to it once again what really matters in life. Seeing the ones we love doing what they love and vice versa.

[Sorry no pics or video, but I'm not much with technology and always felt that no kind of film or zeros and ones can capture moments like live music anyway, you have to be there.]