Three weeks ago at the 91st Harvest Music Festival, strangers danced, drank and sang with one another to the tune of country music star Jason Aldean. Some people were there falling in love— casually passing a cigarette back and forth and enjoying a killer guitar solo. Perhaps a pair of best friends had begun yelling at one another over something the next morning neither of them would remember. When the concertgoers think of October 1, 2017, they will not remember the small jokes that got roaring laughs. They won’t remember how the blue neon lights made a halo in the frazzled hair of their lover. They won’t remember how they screamed the lyrics of their favorite songs, only how the screams of the masses reverberated like gunfire as celebration exploded into terror.
Image via Detroit Free Press
While I write this, my girlfriend and I are on our own trek to Austin City Limits, a popular music festival in Austin, Texas. Our friend Yena, who we met at another music festival over the summer, messaged us last week saying she refunded her tickets because she was scared. That Monday morning after the shooting, my mom sent me a sweet text saying that she was thinking of me and that she loves me. I knew she was worried too. Even this week, my roommate informed me that her blood type is the universal donor, just in case.
Though we acknowledge the obvious fear shared between us during our 11 hour drive to Austin, we realize if we allow this fear to prevent us from doing what we love it means they win.
Over the summer, I was in the small town of Dalavich in the Scottish countryside. When I say small, I mean there were around 30 houses, a soccer field and the road to Dalavich was a one-way, winding gravel path that took about an hour to drive down from the closest highway. In Dalavich, I met a 15-year-old also named Katie who had never lived anywhere else. When I asked her if she wanted to travel and experience the world, she said 30 years ago she would have, but with the lingering fear of terrorism hanging over the world she was content with her sheep and quiet life.
While I completely understand Katie’s perspective, I reject her philosophy. As a person who longs to experience as much as possible in this life, I could never resign myself to fear of the unknown. There is simply too much in this world that fills me with curiosity and that sense of childlike wonder, and if I allowed fear to overtake me all of the wonderful colors would drain from the world, leaving behind only black, white and red. Red like stoplights, bloodshot eyes and the aftermath of the 1st of October.
Those people who died at the beginning of the month were more than just red. They had blue eyes and cheeks that blushed. In the setting sun, their skin shined gold. Do not allow the hate of this world to drain their rainbow. There is bravery in being hopeful in the midst of chaos. Be brave.
“Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
-Dylan Thomas, Do not go gentle into that good night
Cover image courtesy of Business Insider