Thursday, September 22, 2016

I’m home in Davidson today, and I wasn’t supposed to be.  Since June, I have been working on a concert for a super cool client that was supposed to take place in Raleigh tonight.  We had a great team in place to execute, the production schedule was done, the names of all the staff were ready to get parking permits and the client was in town from Texas.  The food was purchased; the trucks were loaded.  EVERYTHING WAS READY.

A couple of day ago, the authorities in charge of the outdoor space called it off due to weather and conditions of the grounds.  We made every attempt to move it.  We made calls, created a symphony of texts, crossed our fingers, sent prayer hand emoji’s and in the end the event was postponed for a few months and will only be planned for indoors.

Everyone came together with as much grace as possible to look towards the next step.   Of course there is the disappointment of not seeing an event happen.  It feels a little bit like a cancelled vacation or missing something exciting because you are sick.  When that time has been scheduled to be away, it takes a moment to regroup and move on.

The news in Charlotte today and what I am hearing from other friends in the industry has changed my perspective on the cancellation of the event I was planning.

I stopped licking my surface wounds for the event that could have been in Raleigh as I heard of other event planners having to move entire groups and/or make the decision to completely cancel events because of the recent unrest in Charlotte out of a concern for the safety of the guests.   The planned protests yesterday began as peaceful and then things escalated.  I want to believe that the series of events that led to our situation locally were completely avoidable.  That if Keith Lamont Scott had not been shot in the first place, we would all be experiencing this first day of Autumn very differently, in many cases celebrating both our differences and all we have in common.

When I think about these cancellations I am reminded of the Force Majeure Clause in our contracts defined as an event that no human foresight could anticipate or which, if anticipated is too strong to be controlled.    This is also known as an Act of God.

When I think about an Act of God, especially in this instance, I think of what God’s true purpose means to me, which is to love our fellow women and men. We are all just people. Black Lives Matter. ALL LIVES MATTER. My heart goes out to those families who have lost loved ones.. I can only imagine their anquish. And my heart goes out to the police who risk their lives every day.  I wish it were as simple as saying love conquers hate and that if we all loved ourselves and others, the world would be a better place.   There is so much work to do.

If you have read this far, I thank you.  For just a moment, please send loving thoughts out into our local community, your local community, the country, and the world today.  We are on a bumpy ride!  Let’s pray for HARMONY.  I want to keep bringing people together for positive experiences!!

Namaste.