I was sitting on an airplane this week scrolling through old photos on my phone. A flood of memories filled my mind when I came across this photo.
Earlier this year, my wife and I were invited to travel to a Ben Rector concert in Omaha, Nebraska to help celebrate a friend’s 40th birthday. I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but I remember being less than enthused about traveling across several states to attend a concert for a band I didn’t care about.
If I’m being completely honest, I probably wasn’t my best self the evening of the concert either. I was fully expecting to dislike the music and had made up my mind that I would endure the experience because I cared about the people we were celebrating with.
But a funny thing happened over the course of the concert.
Ben's opening act completely crushed it and when Ben Rector took the stage in that famed little theatre he put on a show that was pure magic. It probably didn’t hurt that at one point, Ben snuck up in the balcony to sing a song from the middle of the audience. If you zoom in on the photo below you can see that he was definitely singing to me (or at least probably making eye contact with me while singing).
All that is beside the point. The concert was so good that I now consider Ben Rector one of my favorite artists and frequently find myself shuffling his songs while working at home.
So, as I sat on the airplane thinking about the memories around this picture I realized something. Had it not been for the people in my life that I care about, I would never have signed up to hear Ben Rector sing. And my playlist would be missing my new favorite music.
So here’s what I’m thinking...
It’s not just new music that changes our playlists. It’s the people in our lives who love the new music that help change our playlists. It’s the trust and relational underpinnings between us that scaffold the space between what we’re currently listening to and what our playlist will look like tomorrow. Without people change lacks context and heart.
It’s the people in our lives who help us change our playlist.
If this blog post resonated, you might like my newest book, Reclaiming Our Calling: Hold on to the Heart, Mind, and Hope of Education. The book tackles a tension many educators are feeling using a combination of stories and practical strategies. If you’re interested in technology integration, Renegade Leadership: Creating Innovative Schools for Digital-Age Students is a best-seller with Corwin Press. Both books are built on the belief that everything we do in education starts with relationships and connectedness.
