I have been looking forward to seeing Earth, Wind, and Fire and Lionel Richie in concert for months. This was going to be my first big concert in over ten years, and I was excited to hear my favorite songs from the elements like “Fantasy”, “Reasons”, “Devotion,” “September,” and more.

I was also super excited to hear Lionel Richie sing “Easy” because it is one of my favorite songs ever.  Going to this concert was a way to remember my mother because one of the reasons I like Earth, Wind, and Fire and Lionel Richie is because my parents listened to their music when I was growing up. I think my parents were bigger fans of Lionel Richie when he was with the Commodores.

My sister and I arrived at Chase Center at about 7 pm, and saw a huge line of people waiting to get in. I thought this was odd since the tickets said that doors were opening at 6:00 PM. We joined the line, and nobody seemed to know what was going on.

A woman in front of us went to investigate. “They said there was a medical emergency,” she reported.

We were all worried that the medical emergency involved Lionel Richie because he had fallen ill at the beginning of the tour. It turns out that it wasn’t Lionel Richie but the drummer for Earth, Wind, and Fire, who had been taken away from Chase on a stretcher in critical condition.

We stood in line for several more minutes before the Chase Center event team said, “The show is being postponed.”

Someone asked: “Until when? An hour?”

“There’s no show tonight. There was a medical emergency,” he replied.

Nobody was sure what to do, so we started talking to each other.   “This also happened when I went to the Barry Manilow concert: It got canceled too,” the woman behind us shared.

Later another man said, “That’s what happens when we go see people in their seventies and eighties.” It turns out the seventy- and eighty-year-olds weren’t even the ones with the medical emergency!!

Not knowing what else to do and knowing the rideshare area was going to be chaotic due to the large number of people leaving Chase at the same time, my sister and I headed for one of the bars/restaurants at Thrive Center to drown our disappointment in a cocktail.

We were also thinking of the person who had a medical emergency because rumors were swirling, and nobody was sure what happened.

The bar was filled with other disappointed concertgoers, and soon Lionel Richie and Earth, Wind, and Fire’s music started blasting throughout the restaurant.  When “Let’s Groove Tonight” came on, one of the patrons danced from one end of the restaurant to another. We sang to “All Night Long,” “September”, and I sang my heart out to “Easy.”

My mother would have called the evening a flop or a bum deal. It was certainly disappointing, but I thought about how we talked to different people in the line; one woman shared that she saw Lionel’s last concert with the Commodores, we enjoyed a cocktail, there was an impromptu sing-along in the restaurant, and we were in an atmosphere with people of all races, ages, and cultures. It was wonderful!

My big victory was saying, “Yes” to going to the concert.  When we started talking about the concert at work, and several people said they were going, I said to myself: “Why not? These acts are only getting older, you love the music, and this would be a great start to your birthday celebration.”

I said yes, and I am glad I did

Keeping disappointment in perspective

While it was disappointing to have our evening of entertainment canceled, it’s important to keep in perspective that the EWF band member had a serious enough medical emergency that they postponed the show.

The members of Earth, Wind, and Fire are musicians, but they are also humans, and this was their friend and bandmate. I’m sure they couldn’t bear to perform if they didn’t know if their friend was going to make it.

It’s important to keep disappointments in perspective and focus on the bigger picture. For too long, I’ve ruminated on my disappointments, and I think it’s time for that to end.

It’s time to focus on the future. The further away I get from what I perceived to be “disappointments,” the more I see that they were life lessons designed to bring clarity and vision for the future.

Making Lemonade from Disappointment

I loved the man who danced through the restaurant to “Let’s Groove Tonight” because that is what EWF’s music is designed to do. It’s to make us feel alive, and even though we were disappointed, we could still dance and have a great time.

Life may hand you lemons, but you have the choice to make lemonade in September and dance on the ceiling all night long.