Well, Collective Soul came by to perform today. I had not listened to any alternative for such a long time I had forgotten some songs they played frequently over the radio. They started out with Star Spangled Banner, which sounded so freaken cool, and they were throwing T-Shirts at us. They continued with Heavy, and went from there. I swear, I only meant to go up front to take a freaken picture. But then when I got up front, I kept telling myself I’ll leave as soon as they stop playing so well. Well, that never happened, so I was standing up front, next to some huge speakers for quite some time, 90 minutes of the concert. They went along, explaining that they came to a realization, that they have the freedom to do what they have always dreamt of doing because of what we’re doing here. That (like Bruce Willis had said the week before) what people see in CNN isn’t all there is to it. That his dad is a minister, and he would always praise with his congragation every morning, and it would always begin like this. He claps over his hands, and everyone soon follows. And he says now he doesn’t have a congregation. But that here we are. And he would like to say one thing. That when he was young, he learned one thing that stuck with him. Don’t just believe in anything. Believe in something. So he says let’s believe in freedom. Let’s believe in patriotism. Let’s believe in love. And they played, so well, that it was much better than what I had ever heard beforehand. My left ear went numb, having watched the concert from the left side. Nielson was on the right with some other people, and he says his right ear is still numb. But it was definitely worth it. If anything, he was much better than Bruce Willis who stuck to his repetitive routine. For a few minutes, they made me forget I was miserable here, that I was feeling so much pain I’ve never felt before, that I never knew existed. For a few minutes, I felt like the entire world cared. And for a few minutes, I was glad to be there, standing, jumping, rejoicing at this fortune I was listening to.