When I was a young teenager, I loved Bruce Springsteen’s Greetings from Asbury Park. It was a great joy to then be a sound roadie on his 1978 Darkness on the Edge of Town tour. I remember a show in a little theater in Pittsburgh. Bruce got a note from a fan before the show about the fan’s buddy just dying in a motorcycle accident.

Bruce decided he was going to play Lost in the Flood, which he hadn’t played in years. I remembering him saying to the sound mixer and me that he was embarrassed about some of the lyrics (“Nuns running bald through Vatican halls pregnant, pleading immaculate conception”) and that he’d just mumble through that line.

His performance of that song that night moved me to heaving sobs. Great art can do that.  Here’s a video of a later performance of the song, also amazing.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTyn1rEw1VY

What made me think about this song, though, was a project we’re pricing near Philadelphia. The developer/contractor built four of the six approved large condo multi-family housing buildings. Then came the the financial crisis of 2008 and everything just stopped.

The developer/contractor went bankrupt as did many of the firms who were working on the project. As I call though the contractor roster to get bids from the firms that built the previous buildings, I get lots of “Phone no longer in service” messages.

Those firms were lost in the flood. It makes me think about the close brushes I’ve had with financial catastrophe over the years. I know I’ve been blessed to not have to go through that painful process of bankruptcy. Today I’m going to remember in all my busyness just how blessed I continue to be.

As we all work in this economic recovery, getting busier and more stressed, let’s remember to keep our perspective. Do some things every day that truly matter the most to you. Move that ball down the field.