A few weeks ago it rained in Boston, that heavy pounding cold rain that comes out of nowhere and blankets the city with thick dark grey clouds. Rain that heavy and sudden never seems to last for long and just as suddenly as it came it stopped and this beautiful rainbow stretched from one part of the city to the other. I don’t think I have seen a rainbow as big and as clear as that rainbow from my office window that day.
Today we mourn those lost in that horrific bombing. We’re sad, distraught, and puzzled but we will find our strength in each other. This thick dark heavy cloud will break and we will have a rainbow again.
I had the pleasure of catching the Queen of Soul at the Fox Theater in Atlanta Monday night. Thanks to my dear friend and her husband who bought us tickets for her birthday. It was worth flying down south from Providence to see her.
Honestly, I didn’t expect an awesome show. Ms. Retha is 69 years old. I thought she’d do most of her singing from a stool but sistergirl came out in her heels and rocked the mike. I mean my girl ROCKED!!!! She did her little two steps, her shimmies, and moved those hips. She ROCKED!
I’ve always appreciated her as the Queen of Soul, I have several of her cd’s and since I was a child my favorite Aretha tune has been Rock Steady. I gave her the title Queen of Soul because everyone else did and I respected her position in music but I didn’t know how truly she deserved that right till I heard her live! Her voice is majestic! I tear up thinking how beautiful it was to hear her. I tear up with pride at being blessed to have a piece of her in my life. She is simply amazing and I cannot tell you how much I adore her, respect her, and I am inspired by her. Seeing her the other night makes me want to do better, be better, fulfill all my dreams or at least work as hard as she did and does. I’m so proud to be a black woman like her.
Now the best part of the whole night was when Ms. Aretha ended the show and walked off the stage waving and blowing kisses and sent her stage manager back out to get her purse she left on the stage! OMG the whole audience erupted because we all have an aunt, a grandmother, someone who carries their purse with them EVERYWHERE! My own aunt even would carry hers into the bathroom in her own house LOL
Ya’ll know!!!
My favorite Aretha tune Rock Steady. On my sixth or seventh bday my mom bought me my first record player, it had animals on it, and at my party I played this back to back at least a hundred times. Then one of my little monster cousins broke the needle on my record player. WOMP WOMP
