Making Things Right

For almost six years now, I've maintained that I needed a "redo" of the U2 concert I attended in 2011. 

Thanks to an awesome offer from the woman who was my boss' boss at the time, I'd ended up with two pair of list minute tickets. My parents were able to get there, and Birdman initially said he'd go -- and then called back to bail. 

And that was the night that I realized things with Birdman were very wrong. So although it was an awesome concert, it was also one where I sat there wondering what was going to happen next. 

Then he broke up with me the next day. 

So when U2 announced that they were coming back to Pittsburgh, I knew I had to go. And it wasn't that cost wasn't an issue -- cost is always an issue -- but rather that I was not going to miss this concert, and I was not going to see it from the 500s at Heinz Field. 

I take my redo events very seriously. 

It seemed appropriate that this appeared at one point during the concert. 

A brilliant rainbow, ever so briefly there at the end of the stadium. And over the duration of the concert, it was an amazing feeling to be part of something bigger -- and something stronger. 

I feel like my touch and go relationship with U2 is a tangible expression of my touch and go relationship with me over the years. Sometimes, something hurts, and you spend a stupid amount of time blocking it out and switching the channel. And then, sometimes, you get to the point where you can follow Bono's instructions and "Sing your heart out." 

You sing your rallying cries, and you let the music carry you to a place where you can rejoice -- or where you can cry. You get angry, and you kick ass, and you take names, and you wonder how the hell you can ever bounce back from something. 

And then you see that crowd of cell phone lights, and look at that rainbow, and hear that music again, and remember that it is all much bigger than I am -- and it is OK to not have it all figured out yet. 

Yes, I'm still running.