I just meant to listen

On Sunday, 25 April 2010... my life changed.

I had simply meant to attend a small concert in Ridgefield, CT. Susan Werner was in town - and wouldn't be back in the area until the middle of next year. I had bought the Live at Passim album late in 2008 and addded the Gospel Truth to my collection shortly thereafter. Months of listening to her exclusively passed and I realized that there was a story to be told in the songs. I bought more, the story grew. Her music is infectious and I love her. So I paid the $17 and drove the 20 minutes down the road.

When I arrived, I got the idea... "I should take notes." I don't know what made me think that. But I wanted to write down my observations. I went back to my car and when I returned to the room, the seat I had originally wanted was taken. So I walked to the front row, where there were four seats, one all the way at the end, on the left and sat there.

Susan walked out and immediately started in on her set. She went seemlessly from Kicking the Beehive to a song from The Gospel Truth (for whatever reason, I can't remember which one, though I think it was Did Trouble Me - I know this from my notes:
"Christians, Jews, Hindus, Agnostics, all of us - nodding in agreement - this is truly amazing.).

And I sat, ecstatic to just BE there, taking my notes. After the first two, she stopped to talk about the imspirations behind them and then she turned and looked at me and said "What are you writing? Are you grading me? Oh, yeah that one was good. Not so much the other one." I spoke up and said no, I was just taking notes. In fact, I was the one who suggested that someone write a musical around some of her songs. And she perked up. "Oh!" turning to the audience she said "She's my friend on facebook. She thinks that there's a play in my songs." Then she turned back to me and said "I'm gonna come talk to you at intermission." AND SHE DID!

Now, as we spoke, it was more about my aspirations to build programs for children that teach open communication (she has already set me up with a contact in California who wants to help me out) BUT THAT IS NOT THE POINT! I made her laugh and she is "honored" that I want to write the musical... on which she gave me the go-ahead AND free reign ("I'm too close to it. Don't tell me. Just write it.")

So now the process starts... A while back, a friend decided to quit her job and write a book that would not leave her alone. She blogged about it. Another friend wrote an entire novel for National Novel Writing Month. 50,000 words in 30 days. She wrote about it on facebook. BOTH of them are hugely inspirational to me.

I am daunted.
I am ecstatic.
I am a writer.