Diversions

Returning from the Runway Country festival and resuming the normalacy that I consider my regular life has given me a perspective on diversions.  I love diversions... they are a chance to step out of your normal routine and experience activities and adventures that enhance your life.  Enhancing your life with different activities or adventures can help one reinforce their life routines or help one to step outside the constraints of the usual.  I ran across the following quote today:

"Absolutely essential for life but not the point of life." Jim Collins

While the quote was not referring to anything remotely related to what I am writing about, for me it fit the core of what I am writing.  Music festivals, travel, new experiences, new routines, and out of the ordinary adventures are among the many things that are essential for life but not the point of life. The festival provided me with a avenue to be with family in a setting that was completely different from each of our lives.  It was a chance to meet new people, see different sights, and experience music in a social gathering that we will all share in our memories for years to come.  While at the festival there were people in the crowd that had been to every Runaway festival and bonded with others who had experienced each year.  This year there was incredible music, lighting displays, fun people and the fascinating rain storm that had warm rain, little to huge drops, and freezing temps all in a few seconds of time. (Being from Colorado.. rain is somewhat of an oddity...I therefore probably enjoyed it more than others who experience it often!).  It was interesting to watch the festival crew monitor the situation (we were by the beer tent with the security crew) and the stage crew adjust the staging to handle the winds.  People of all walks of life pulled together to make the festival a fun experience.   The richness of the experience of interacting with so many people from all walks of life with the common goal to experience the festival music was the fabric that held the weekend together.  (This is comparable to the early years of baseball where the immigrants sat shoulder to shoulder with the already established American citizens and were able to interact with a common goal and acceptance.)  Common experiences can form bonds of understanding and social consciousness.  Music is a universal theme for the human soul and music festivals and concerts are another layer that are backdrops for social interaction which can take us our of our ordinary routines and allow us to see, feel, and experience with a new awareness.