speeches on U2

January 6, 2006

This next bit was inspired by that photo and a caption from my friend at U2.com saying "This photo reminded me of you - the future is within reach - keep the faith..."

We all know I'm about to kick the world's butt - Starting in March officially by going to the Domincan Republic to rebuild a school from Katrina. Just - about Bono? Yeah, he's my inspiration. But he wasn't the spark that started the flame. That's a long sad story that no one wants to hear so I'm not going to tell it unless spcefically asked. I'd love the opperitunity to sit down with all of them someday - not to get an autograph or talk about the bands perse - but to actually talk to them and know them. Talk to Bono and what drives him and learn from all of them and all they do. Because I think there is a ton of wisdom and insight there. Just listen to the music - the lyrics, the sounds. Listen to how hard Larry rocks those drums, the beats he comes up with, the sounds he discovers in hallways. The slow steady rock hard melody that Adam upholds - ever faithfully even through trouble. Edge - he's definatly from the future. The way he plays, the way he loves his guitar as though it were a woman. And Bono - his singing alone is the scraping of a soul bursting to escape the stupid body that is holding it back. Then the lyrics - the end. It doesnt take a genious to know that something is going on there. And perhaps that, my friends, is why we love them so much. Because we feel it. We understand it. We want to discover it. IT.... it's something that we all have and want and feel and need. The explosion of emotion that society will not allow us to show. The colour in our days that seems to fade as though we were born in the summer and die in the winter. The thing that rages against every silent testimony that could have saved a life. The feeling of tearing when you see that child starving in the street and want to take him home with you. To love and serve and hope and dream... That is why I write letters to U2 regularly. To hope that they recieve even one. To let them know that there are so many hearts out here like this that understand and ring true with every beat and moment in each and every song. And maybe - someday - to get lucky enough that they will take notice to this small hopeful voice that will never ever give up and figure that maybe she is unworthy but interesting enough to meet and share inspiration with. That's what I see in that picture - Johnathan. The example that I follow - grasping hands with total strangers to walk a life of servitude in order to give all I have to those in need because I can find ways to get more, while they cannot. To rage against my earlier years and to prove that people do not have to live like that - in pain, in suffering, in saddness. And as Bono often says - NO MORE!!!