one stalk many branches

last night we hosted a concert by jeremy messersmith, who is a whimsical and moving minnesota songwriter and a beautiful singer and so he qualifies as one of my favorite singer-songwriters. but beyond the singing and guitar playing, what was interesting was seeing a household full of strangers fold into each other, and talk about their lives and then become a concert audience for an hour and a half, and then break out into small conversational groups afterwards. we all had one tiny square of common ground–the lyrics to jeremy’s songs. and by the end of the night, those little plots of common ground had expanded into a community. and i wish more art was doing more of that. more of the time.

early winter milkweed