U2 are free…

Sunday Bloody Sunday, sung live this past Sunday kinda stuck with me.

My client, SNB, had generously invited Miss and I to join a group of them for U2’s 360 tour stop in Saint Louis. Miss had never seen them live and I could hardly wait for my second moment with them live. They didn’t disappoint. For me, however, it’s rarely about the stage, the sound, the lights, or the show. All those elements were typcial U2…

Amazing.

For me, I love trying to find the melody line. Watching a movie, taking in a concert, reading a challenging book, and engaging with a client, all offer me the same opportunity for finding the melody line.

The 360 tour melody line was freedom and it started to show through before the first song was even sung. Words came across the giant screen reminding all that attended of our unique freedoms in America, our responsibilities, and our choices. In between songs Bono couldn’t have been clearer. He kept reminding us of our great freedoms here and that they are always hard fought freedoms. He gave us some visual aids too. He showed us a man in outer space who nearly lost his woman in Arizona, because of freedom. And, he still thought it was a “beautiful day.”

He showed us a leader that had been under house arrest for 15 years for simply winning an election. Her name is Suu Kyi and her country is Burma. Her quote that is captured in the BTL playbooks is exquisite and appropriate here…

“It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who weild it, and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”

When the guitar wailed the beginnings of Sunday Bloody Sunday, I was washed away with the meaning behind each of the words. Here was a band singing about their own struggle for that most precious freedom, the freedom to believe. And a bloody struggle it was in their home called Ireland. The melody line just kept playing and playing and playing…

FREEDOM.

Appropriately the band ended their show with a complete 360 from where they started. They ended with their new anthem, Moment of Surrender. They reminded themselves and those that were paying attention that we are only free when we finally surrender. Funny, huh…

Remember, we are enjoying more freedom today than at any time in history. We are free to believe. The key question, however, remains unanswered for countless people around the globe.

Do you know who you are? Do you know what you believe about the big questions in life? Have you authored your worldview, your matrix through which you make sense of this world?

It is a beautiful day. I intend to enjoy it. I am thankful to be free.

U2?