Music on Main

What do Fleetwood Mac, Adele, kd lang, Elvis Presley, and Santana have in common?  Good tunes.  "Rhiannon", "Rollin' in the Deep", "Hallelujah", "Jailhouse Rock", "Forget About It" are just a few of the covers we listened to tonight at Music On Main in Lakewood Ranch, their monthly First Friday event.  Soul R Coaster was the band at one end of the blocked off Main Street downtown, while a teen-friendly band played at the other.  Food trucks, stores open late, booths selling and advertising various items, families, dogs too, couples both young and old, all enjoyed the evening.

Bearded Collies --new to me! So adorable and such big love muffins.

We went with three good friends, and had a wonderful couple of hours, in spite of the cold.  Ha ha, but 59F aka 15C with a wind reminded me how much I do not like to be cold AT ALL.  I was wearing jeans and a fleece-lined windbreaker jacket too! 

While talking with one of my friends this evening, who is a new friend, but SUCH a kindred spirit, I discovered we both love the uniqueness of various cultures, (we've both travelled, she a lot, me a little) we both love the history we discover in various countries, and cities, even those close to home like Montreal, New York, Detroit.  Culture.  History.  People.  It was while listening to "Hallelujah", acknowledging that such a powerful tune was written by one of my favourite Canadian songwriters and performers, Leonard Cohen, (at first I thought it was Neil Young, but that one  is "Helpless") also performed the best by kd lang, that I thought. . .

We are all people.  (well duh)  No, seriously, and we all want the same thing pretty much:  happiness.  I think once you whittle it all down, that's really what is important to everyone.  One path to happiness is through friendship, or camaraderie, and I certainly experienced that tonight.  To make an attempt to link back to the opening sentence, whether one is British, Canadian, American, Spanish, etc., we are just people who CAN get along just fine, much like a family does, or a couple does, with normal ups and downs.  Once we TALK to each other, that's what we find out:  that we are all so very much alike.

A good song is a good song, no matter the nationality of the composer.  A good person is a good person, no matter their nationality or culture.  Would that our politicians could be so simple.