joy

I went to a concert Thursday night. It was The Blasters. If you don't know them, they are a great classic roots rock band. It was terrifc concert, but what I noticed really got to me. For the ENTIRE 90 minute plus show, the lead singer Phil Alvin was the focal point. He did all the talking to the audience, he was the obvious music leader calling time and songs, and he sang every song. That must have been a pretty exhausting situation, but you know what I noticed? Not one time did Alvin fail to smile. He was beaming form start to finish. No matter how much he sweated and worked, he was obviously having the time of his life. Now, it was a good crowd, but nothing extraordinary. The band must be performing all the time, yet from watching Phil Alvin, you would think this was one of the greatest moments of his life. And his sheer joy in performing infected the crowd. EVERYBODY was rocking, and everybody left talking about what a great show it was. The other weird thing was there was no physical problems or arguements the entire night. The bouncers basically sat around rocking out with us. I think a lot of that had to do with Alvin projecting such sheer joy. I think it is hard to be in a foul mood when you are watching someone just enjoying themselves. So, I thought while driving home, what would happen if we all just tried to be a little joyful in our everyday lives? Maybe it would act like a contagious disease and spread. I am going to be doing my part in at least a little attempt to find out.