Wishes For These Times

Here's an interesting link to a story about country music artist Martina McBride by Alison Bonaguro at the CMT Blog: Did Martina McBride’s Fans’ Wishes Come True? Why am I linking to this? Because (a) I'm a country music fan, (b) I like Martina (a class act) and (c) I just found it interesting. So there!

God love Martina McBride. Instead of relying on the expected footage of the town she’s touring in (”Oh look! Wrigley Field! Buckingham Fountain! How totally clever!”), she went for something very different. At her show this weekend in Chicago, when she sang “For These Times,” she showed video of the fans outside the venue writing their one wish for the future on a dry erase board. Just like the video, only with more of a local angle.

The song paints a picture of a world with more compassion, more love, more grace, more hope. Everyone has their own vision of what will make the world a better place. Some were funny. Some were dead serious. Some were selfish. Some were more big-picture ideas. But watching these fans write them down for all to see gave you a feel for how diverse McBride’s fans are:

A cure for cancer
No more homework
Martina for President
An end to terrorism
For gas to cost less
For road construction on I-80 to be finished
For boys to get smarter
Lots of money
The Cubs win the World Series
The Sox win the World Series
Happiness for children
A boy to make out with
World peace

The whole thing felt a little bit like the general intercession part of mass when the priest says, “For all the intentions we hold in hearts, let us pray to the Lord.” I’m not saying that concert was weirdly liturgical, just that I felt a bond with those fans and really wanted good things to happen for them. What I wished for that night came true, so I just hope everyone there was as blessed as I was.