June 26, 2024
When we embrace the ancient ways of being
in right relationship with community…
It took me a minute to realize what I was seeing. More significantly, it took me a minute to realize what I wasn’t seeing.
I was watching the video of Queen’s performance at the 1985 Live Aid benefit concert that had a global audience of over 1.9 billion people and raised $127 million for famine relief in Africa. Among the more than 75 rock music icons and legends that participated, it was Queen’s performance that was and still is considered one of the greatest live performances of all time.
One member of the BBC broadcasting team recalled the awe among other superstar musicians watching backstage, “Everybody realized that Queen was stealing the show.” After the set, Elton John rushed into Freddie Mercury’s trailer and said by way of congratulations, “You bastards, you stole the show.”
Watching that performance, it was easy to see why. Mercury’s charismatic energy was captivating. The 72,000 fans at Wembley Stadium were all on their feet, arms in the air waving and clapping and singing the lyrics. When the cameras panned the crowd, you could feel the intense connection and see the riveting eye contact.
And that’s when I realized what I wasn’t seeing. In those thousands of raised arms and hands, there were no cell phones. They weren’t watching the live performance on and through their devices. They were totally present and totally engaged.
Concert organizer, Bob Geldorf, has said it would be impossible to host another Live Aid concert nowadays. “That instrument of change is no longer plausible.” He attributes this to our technology that has moved us away from the community collective to a world of individualism. We live in a world consumed with technology. It seems we also live in a world consumed by it.
Which seems a grim way to end this post. So I will add these words from Bob Geldorf. “Something like Live Aid couldn’t happen now, but that doesn’t stop you raging against the dying of the light.”
And in that raging, in that journey of holding and sharing the Light, may we come together, even with and in spite of our technology, in ways and places where our spirits are not eaten.
Beannacht,
Judith