When I bought our tickets to the 2014 Great Hudson River Revival, I was anticipating that it would feel strange to see Pete without Toshi. But it turned out to be the first festival with neither of them, as Pete followed Toshi into the next life...
It was a weekend spent celebrating the lives of two truly remarkable people, who will be missed by so many. I kept expecting to see the Seegers' golf cart go by, though I knew it was impossible. It was sweet and sad, but I'm glad we went. The music was wonderful. Emma's Revolution wrote and performed "Sing People Sing" in memory of Pete and Toshi, and I will give it the highest compliment I can give a song: I wish I had written it! There's a line in it that goes "hope changes everything." Hope is what Pete was the master of-- hope and bringing people together to work for a better tomorrow. Having been in a place after my accident where I was living without any hope, only to have found it once again, I can completely attest to the power of that sentence. I love that song.
That said, on Sunday, at the Circle of Song, I got Mikro to get up and sing with me on the song that I wrote for Pete. It's called "People of the River", and I'm not sure how I managed to get through it without bawling, but I did. That's the first time I have ever had the guts to perform something I wrote for people other than family, and I only managed it because I wanted so much to honor Pete & Toshi, and because Mikro was there holding my hand. I knew if I flubbed, he would keep on singing. And I know that the best way I can thank Pete for everything is to keep writing, and singing, and standing up for what I believe, and to teach Mikro to do the same. To borrow a line from Pete, "We still can have singing tomorrows!"
There are far too many photos below...
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