By Karla Duerson: How can I sleep with so much life springing up? A new simple church was birthed tonight with excitement all around and the adventure of the fight with our enemy—all the drama of light pushing back the darkness. Then there was a movie with the promise of more to come with a friend who has keen eyes and big thoughts about the big screen and all that it can do and be. The cherry? A Pearl Jam documentary commemorating their 20 years together. The almost two hour journey mapping out the life of the band was exhilarating for me.
They were my favorite during a time when I needed music. When I listened to their songs, I was transported, given a catharsis—a vent for all the tumult and angst of a teenager’s heart.
At one point of the show Gavin said, “No wonder a parent may be troubled if their child enjoyed this music.” I laughed remembering my mother asking if I was using drugs during my hay days as a fan—I wasn’t. I remember nights in darkened living room dancing around, playing and pausing each song to write down all of the lyrics, and an English paper I’d written imagining meeting Eddie Vedder, the lead singer of the band.
I am happy and smiling thinking about such things. For that reason, I want to mark this night so that maybe I can let my children live in their moments of angst and listen to music I don’t understand or like. Then, they may have moments later like the one I’m having now of looking back fondly and knowingly about being younger, and “so misunderstood” except by soothsaying musicians who can speak the language of the heart.
