God, me and the Boss

I’ll admit it. The first time I saw Bruce Springsteen in concert I got weepy.

Anyone who knows me even a teeny bit, knows that I adore The Boss. I think a lot of his music is cerebral, addresses social justice issues, tackles coming-of-age and working-man topics (though I am long past that stage of life and am in a middle-class job), employs numerous spiritual references and tells a good story. Plus, OK, he’s an Irish-Italian-Catholic Jersey boy and, well, I think he’s handsome.

The first time I saw him perform it was during his acoustical tour several years ago at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. I went with one of my best friends — also a big fan — and her eldest son. We had tried before to get tickets to a concert, and we finally did. And it was a wonderful intro to a Bruce concert; we have since seen his Seeger Sessions tour and three performances with the E Street Band, two of them superb beyond description.

But that night, that very first concert, was to be more special than I could have anticipated. I first heard “Drive All Night,” a heartbreaker of a love song. I was mesmerized by his cover of Suicide’s “Dream, Baby, Dream.” And I enjoyed many of his major hits.

But none of those is the reason my heart moved me toward tears. That had to do more with God than with “Thunder Road” or “Born in the USA.” At that time in my life, I had four personal things — items just for me, smaller than the “making-a-difference-in-the-world” type of goals — on what today would be called a bucket list. Seeing Springsteen perform was one of the four. But I never really expected to do any of them for a variety of reasons, including a health concern that made attending concerts in a major venue a bit of an issue.

That night, that first concert, I realized God had given me a wonderful gift, and that was the emotional trigger for me. He enabled me to realize a dream. He gave me hope. Since then, He has opened many other doors for me and handed me many other gifts, perhaps the biggest one the ability to recognize so many of life’s blessings for what they are — blessings and not just mere coincidence or lucky breaks.

I still haven’t knocked the other three items off my list, but I am looking forward to working with God to accomplish them as well. With God, I do indeed believe all things are possible, even something as small in the scheme of things — but large in one person’s life — as attending a concert with good friends to hear the performance of a lifetime.

Patricia Quigley is a freelance writer and member of Incarnation Parish, Mantua.