Do You Have A Dream? 5/19/22

We have spent the last week and a half in Nashville - Music City USA - Tennessee. And I have to be honest - it isn’t exactly what I imagined it to be. Not that it is bad. Just not what I expected.

I think that somehow I imagined it a bit like Ireland, full of music and cozy places to get a beer, while you watched talented musicians. Not so large scale. Not so over the top.

In many ways it actually reminds me of Las Vegas. And if you know me at all you will know that Vegas has never been one of my favorite places. I really can’t say why for sure, but I think it has to do with the “over the topness” of it all. The lights, the busy streets, the huge flashing signs. And it turns out the Nashville has lots of that too.

And partying. Nashville has lots and lots of partying. It is super popular with bachelorette parties, and as you walk the streets downtown, you are constantly passed by open air party buses with tons of girls dancing to music and chugging beer. They wear matching outfits and t-shirts, and when not on the party busses, wander the streets in groups. Not really my thing either.

And yet. Scratch below the surface a little and you start to see something more. Something that looks very much like dreams.

One of the advantages of living on the road is that you get to stay for an extended time in one place. For us that usually averages about three to four weeks in one location. It gives us time to see some highlights on the weekends and still have time for everyday stuff like work, cleaning the camper, and grocery shopping. And we need to stay places long enough to get our mail delivered. But, it also give us a time to settle into a place, and move past our surface level reactions that we usually have when we first arrive - like in Nashville.

Now I probably won’t be adding Nashville to the top of my travel lists in the future but I am still glad we are here. And that we have time to look a little deeper.

What I have noticed is that beyond the multi story bars and loud partying, there are a great deal of people here following their dreams. And that takes courage. I know this because I have been working on trying to follow mine now for a few years and it is pretty exhausting work. And yet folks keep showing up here in this city of music. They keep reaching, and dreaming, and trying. And that takes perseverance.

This past weekend we attended a songwriter session at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The songwriter shared how he had collaborated on songs with the likes of John Prine and written hits for Don Williams among others. He was also the writer behind the Coca Cola song, “I’d like to teach the world to sing”. He had been writing songs for the better part of six decades - some of them hits, some of them misses.

Earlier in the day we had watched a series of young musicians make their way past us on their way to Broadway and the clubs that lined the streets. All with a guitar in hand and I am sure a song in their heads. Ready to play for the thousands of tourists that would flood the bars that day.

On Tuesday night we went to a speakeasy bar on Music Row and chatted with our young bartender as he mixed up specialty cocktails. He had graduated from college with a degree in Accounting and then come back home to figure out his next steps. He started working in the speakeasy part time and discovered he had a knack for mixology. And he also started playing in a band which he tours with most of the year when he is not mixing fancy drinks.

There is a creative energy here that feels palpable. It feels like a place where it is okay to share that you have a dream and not be laughed out of the room. Or challenged, or told it can never happen. And it is sort of refreshing. And energizing.

Earlier this morning Jason and I were talking about pursuing dreams - specifically our own - and he said something pretty striking to me. He was reflecting back over our past year of living full time on the road (yep we just marked our one year on the road anniversary). As he talked, he said what he had not expected was to have so many goodbyes come along with the dream.

That when you step out into a new adventure - when you decide to finally pursue a dream - you think it will be mostly about greeting new opportunities. New challenges. What you don’t expect - or at least we didn't - was all the goodbyes. Some were chosen by us; but many were unexpected and doubly challenging.

Lots of new opportunities yes. And many, many more goodbyes.

I have a sense that a lot of people in this town would understand exactly what we are talking about here.

In Nashville it seems, we are in the community of fellow dreamers.

I still have more dreams waiting. I want to publish a book of poetry. Publish more of my writing so it can have a wider audience. Jason is still learning guitar hoping to one day be good enough to play in the background of a restaurant or bar somewhere. We both have a dream to live overseas at some point.

And all of those dreams will come with new opportunities and lots more goodbyes.

There is a cost to pursuing dreams.

But the cost of leaving those dreams on the table unfulfilled or untried feels much more costly. Even with the goodbyes.