--I REMEMBER ALL THE FINAL WORDS YOU TOLD ME

…So on Saturday night I saw Sam Smith at The Gorge.

I’d never been there.  It’s a remarkable venue.  The Columbia River snakes through hundreds of feet below a hillside and concert-goers sit on a large slope, or, if like me, stand in the mosh pit in front of the stage, while behind us the sun glints off pink water until the sunset comes and then it’s just glorious.

So, yes, I was in the pit with 20,000 hipsters, none older than 28 as I could tell.

I had no idea Sam Smith was so popular.  He’s only had one album, but boy has that single cd connected with people.

It was the loudest concert I’ve ever been to.  The crowd screamed so loud in between songs that my daughter and I—who were standing inches apart—shouted at each other without hearing.

It seemed every single person in attendance know every single word to each song.  A 28 year old mom with her six year old daughter hunched across her back both sang at the top of their lungs the entire night.

It was crazy.  Crazy good.

 …So yesterday on the lake there was a boat with a huge American flag attached to the back along with a… Confederate flag.

Seriously, there was.

What’s the point of doing something like that?  Obviously, it’s a call attention for yourself, but are you trying to pick a fight?  Is that it?

Maybe here, where I live, in redneck country, you wouldn’t get a fight and you would realize that—which is what happened: no fight or yelling.

It just all seems—as a friend said—depressing.

...Anyway, it's Monday and here are some things I like to start the week off:

-“There’s a fine line between being racist and being dumb.” W. Kameul Bell

 -“Perhaps love is the process of my leading you gently back to yourself.”  Antoine De Saint-Exupery

 -“Those who love deeply never grow old; they may die of old age, but they die young.”  A.W. Pinero

-“Each of us is great insofar as we perceive and act on the infinite possibilities which lie undiscovered and unrecognized about us.”  James Harvey Robinson

-“To thine own self be true.” Hamlet