helping: a picture story

Every year around 20,000 people gather in our small Midwestern town, driving from all over the state and neighboring states for camping and music.

People come to the concerts hours early, holding their space as close to the front as they can. There’s a fence to hold them back and a large gap in front of that fence in front of the stage. Usually that gap is filled with volunteers, security, people restricted to wheelchairs, and family and friends of band members.

I love The David Crowder Band, so I stopped helping backstage (my mom is one of the creators of the festival, so we help each year) to go stand in the gap. I love to turn around every once and a while to look back over the jumping and screaming crowd.

At one point, I turned around to see this:

Apparently, a young man had been content to stay in the crowd despite the fact that he wouldn’t be able to see much.

But a few fellow crowd-ers obviously thought he should have a better view.



I just loved it. There was something so moving (and maybe a little dangerous) about this gesture. He wasn’t up there for long, but he enjoyed an entire song, very near the front, with a bird’s eye view.

David Crowder Band

I love it when I randomly spot acts of kindness. They are there all the time, amidst the growing crowd. I wonder what it would be like if we paid more attention to these acts than the bad news?

wooooo hoooo!

P.S. Just so you know, after The Crowder Band was finished, it’s possible that myself and three friends drove a golf cart through the backstage area, me at the wheel pretending to tweet from my phone, while yelling “Twitter will kill you!!!” And it’s possible that we very purposely passed very near David Crowder and nearly ran into a large bus. And it’s possible that David then yelled back, “It will! It will!” It’s possible that happened, but I’m not saying.

(As a Twittering geek, I love the YouTube Rockumentary by the David Crowder Band entitled Twitter Will Kill You It’s one of my very most favorites ever.) (If you haven’t seen the David Goes to the Dentist thing on YouTube, the end will make no sense to you. But if you love Twitter, the rest will still totally crack you up.)

(My dog is snoring in such a way that I keep thinking it’s my phone buzzing. Then I think of Twitter.)

(Can I give you a huge Thank You one more time for all the comment love and support and encouragement over this whole book thing? And the reality show thing? Who knows what will happen with the show, you know? It will come down to whether or not I’m chosen and if at that point Ryan and I feel that whatever format is chosen for the show is something that would be a positive experience for our family.) (I have no idea if that made sense.) (Am tired.)

(The End.)