The price you pay...

Last night my man, Bruce Springsteen, performed the totality of "The River" for a NYC audience. THAT was the album that made me a believer - so soulful - so rockin' - so filled with real pathos and clarity.

I still remember the first night I heard this brilliant album... NYC and I was in seminary with two little girls and marriage going south...

You make up your mind, you choose the chance you take
You ride to where the highway ends and the desert breaks
Out on to an open road you ride until the day
You learn to sleep at night with the price you pay

Now with their hands held high, they reached out for the open skies
And in one last breath they built the roads they'd ride to their death
Driving on through the night, unable to break away
From the restless pull of the price you pay

Oh, the price you pay, oh, the price you pay
Now you can't walk away from the price you pay

Now they'd come so far and they'd waited so long
Just to end up caught in a dream where everything goes wrong
Where the dark of night holds back the light of day
And you've gotta stand and fight for the price you pay
Little girl down on the strand
With that pretty little baby in your hands
Do you remember the story of the promised land
How he crossed the desert sands
And could not enter the chosen land
On the banks of the river he stayed
To face the price you pay

So let the games start, you better run you little wild heart
You can run through all the nights and all the days
But just across the county line, a stranger passing through put up a sign
That counts the men fallen away to the price you pay,
and girl before the end of the day,
I'm gonna tear it down and throw it away.

It is still freakin' INCREDIBLE to sing and hear this song all these years later. Tonight, our little band at church worked through the tunes we're getting together for Thanksgiving Eve - a benefit for our Berkshire neighbors who will need help with emergency heat this winter - and it felt so important to get the music right. I don't mean PERFECT...just right! Filled with soul and truth - hope and passion, too - and beauty. So, we junked a great song that just isn't coming together and added a few new ones so that the music will be RIGHT.

There is so much more to come... thanks be to God.