The Sidebar: Have A Little Faith In Me — Singing What You Can’t Say.
Plus: Books by the bed. The dog on the couch. Stage light on the flowers. Those roasted tomatoes on that bread.
1. Music/Faith
When the road gets dark
And you can no longer see
Just let my love throw a spark
And have a little faith in me
And when the tears you cry
Are all you can believe
Just give these loving arms a try, baby
And have a little faith in me.
— John Hiatt, from “Have A Little Faith In Me”
Not sure if John Hiatt closes with “Have A Little Faith in Me” at every gig, but I’m darn glad he left us with this last night at The Old Whaling Church, where we sat in a side pew, our backs to the two-story-high windows raised to the night, a gentle breeze wafting in to cool the full house, fans of the legendary singer-songwriter-musician packed in with nostalgia and respect overflowing. One amplified acoustic guitar and a whole lot of passion: the generosity of what one man can give of himself in 90 minutes kind of blows me away. (A long-time sober man, I might add!)
Music is faith, isn’t it? In the way it holds us up, says what we can’t say, comforts us. In the way it stretches our reluctant bodies, opens our stale minds, and turns us over to something more powerful.
And I’d forgotten, I’m ashamed to say, how the power manifests in a live performance. Last night it felt good to launch myself out of my busy-body routine and commit to an evening of live music and dinner out with good friends. It seemed like a healthy, normal thing to do. It was fun. I was mesmerized. I came home wanting more. I always want more, but that’s okay. You can never have too much music in your life.
When I first got sober, poems came stumbling out of me almost right away, after many years of not writing any poetry. It was like my brain cells immediately started rearranging, and clearly they had messages they needed to transmit. If I’d had any musical talent, I’d have put those words to music and made songs. But it reminds me that for anyone in early sobriety, using a poem or a song to say what you can’t yet articulate in another form is a beautiful and useful thing.
2. Books/Joy
