My last post, which was some time ago, lamented a certain lost piece of my life that I really didn’t want to let go of. So I went and found it. And the effort made it abundantly clear that it’s been under my nose the entire time. It also illustrated a wonderful fact of life. And that is, people are everywhere in this world, and there’s a lot of them. More importantly, if you look in the right places and use a little of what it is you seek, with enough effort and passion you can find these people. And you’ll find them willing to do everything they can to help you meet your self-appointed task.

Over the last few weeks, with the direct help of no less than 50 people I’d previously never met, and still as of yet seen face to face, I’ve begun to set about rebuilding a spot for myself in a community for which sharing is it’s bedrock. The breadth of their offerings is staggering. And looking deeper still into the history of the community, the numbers of people who’ve had a hand in the process begin to grow.

What I’m listening to, isn’t just an out-of-their-minds, are-you-kidding-me?, “Eyes of the World” from September 8, 1973. But, forget for a moment, if you will, about the band and the music. That shit’s a given. When this music was originally played and recorded, I was a few months shy of four. And as I listen to it now, I can’t help but think of the long chain of hands that have passed it along all these years, doing everything in their power to keep it alive and propagating. People I will never meet, people who don’t know that I’m alive, but just in case I am, they’re going to make sure I hear every fat Phil bomb.

And believe me, they’re fucking gorgeous.

The kindness is not limited to Jerry and the boys, or even to music. Whereas the music fills me with joy and gives me a sense of grand illusion, a certain chain-of-hands event, recently delivered something just as beautiful, but truly humbling. So I’d like to say, “Thank you Anne. And unlike the tapers, and the guys who pour over a source tape and meticulously re-master the ghosts of Grateful Dead past, something tells me our paths will cross.”

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