The Fine Line To Weirdness

The Fine Line

Kathy and I went to an outdoor concert near Corvallis, Montana, last night.

It was put on by a conservation group that works to keep family farms from being sucked up to development.

Sitting in the middle of a field, surrounded by mountains, is this Steinway Grand Piano on a stage.

Concertgoers bring chairs, food, and drinks, and sit out in the field to listen on headphones.

The pianist is from Oregon.

It started okay, but got weirder as the night went on.

The night wasn’t a total loss as we took it all in and chuckled under our breath.

The pianist told the audience to feel free to walk around while he played. That’s cool.

What went over the top for us was when people were invited on stage to lie under the piano to feel the music better.

It was truly an “Eugene” moment for us.

We had smiles on our faces and chuckled a lot.

But there was also something a little creepy about it.

As I reflect on the evening today, one thing comes to mind.

We as humans seem to be wired to connect to God, the creator of the universe.

If we don’t connect with Him, we will find a replacement.

Be it the earth, His creation, animals, ideologies, music, you name it.

I don’t know enough about the group, but at face value, I like the idea of protecting family farms from development.

But why does everything have to become a religion or a cause?

After years in Oregon, I get so sick of that.

My point is, without God, it seems everything ends up being a cause or a value statement.

We will worship something, whether it’s’ farm to table food, electric cars, bio-this or that, we will find a way to replace God with something we can feel good about, something we can use to show our allegiance to.

The evening felt as if someone snapped their fingers, and a blank look would appear on the faces of concert goers as they were startled out of the matrix and into reality.

It’s a fine line, and spending most of my life in Oregon, it’s a line easily discerned.

The night was interesting and will be chalked up to one of those weird experiences (we’ve had many) we’ve gotten ourselves into.

It’s also a good reminder of what can happen when you take the place in your soul reserved for your creator and fill it with the creation.

If we’d been braver, we would have gotten up and done an interpretive dance in front of everyone.

We talked about it. LOL.

Now that would have been a night to remember.