Nashville...Music City, USA!

Sorry…it has been a while since I posted…but I have a lot on my mind so check back soon as I will be posting on multiple subjects in the next few days…

Nashville is a strange little town. I drove there to meet the Haiti team and participate in a car wash to raise money for our trip…The car wash was cancelled due to rain (which never came) so I spent the weekend sight seeing and hanging out with some of the coolest and nicest people I’ve ever met in my entire life!

To my surprise, most people who live in Nashville aren’t actually from there. They are all transplants into the creative little community of artists and musicians that is Nashville. Everyone seems to be Christian too. I don’t think I met a non-Christian person while I was there. It is such juxtaposition from Chicago. I live in a very creative community here—artists, actors, musicians—but very very few of them have any spiritual beliefs let alone a personal relationship with Christ. I like it here, but I kind of liked it there better.

It is true what they say about Southern hospitality. Everyone is just sooooo incredible nice in the South. I was welcomed into not only my friend Christine's home (thanks again hun for the best weekend ever!!!) for the weekend, but also at her friends’ party. Conversation was natural. All of these people seemed to take an eager interest in me—where I’m from, what I do—it was all kind of strange. Even when walking down the streets, strangers would look at you and say hello. It is a far cry from Chicago where everyone has tunnel vision, eyes focused straight ahead, not daring to say a word, even if they accidentally bumped into you to say excuse me. Crazy.

I loved the downtown area. Between the symphony hall, the Ryne Auditorium, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Batman building and the river, the architecture and scenery really is beautiful. Belmont and Vanderbilt’s campuses are beautiful, too. The smaller neighborhoods surrounding downtown have their own little character, some bohemian, some more upscale. Downtown, there really is a musician on every street corner playing an instrument trying to get discovered. There are so many places to go see live music too. I LOOOVVVVEEE live music! So many big-name Christian and Country artists live around the city…Steven Curtis Chapman, Michael W. Smith, Keith Urban and my boys Wertz and Barnes from previous blogs; but Christine tells me it is not “cool” to be a fan there. This might be a problem for me. For example, if Keith Urban and his wife Nicole Kidman walked into my Starbucks (as happened the Thursday before I arrive to Christine’s friend) it would be so uncool of me to do anything other but ignore them. Bummer. Other than this minor detail, Nashville might just be the city for me. Apparently Publishing is a bigger industry in Nashville than the music business. Hard to believe, I know. And I hear that Vanderbilt has an exceptional English/Creative Writing Doctoral Program. Hmmmm…new life plan???