There’s something in the air; it’s like a stillness that moves. There are people sitting in chairs and sitting on a patch of grass; in a few short hours, bodies will leap up from their seats and the grass will be pounded endlessly by a thousand pairs of feet. There is a murmur of hushed silence settled over the people; soon, the silence will be shattered by screams and laughter that is so loud, you can hear it from miles away. This is the inevitable as the people wait in the living stillness, staring at the platform in front of them.
After a waiting period of what seems like forever, the lights go down drastically and the stillness throbs into a living motion. The anticipation mounts higher with each passing second. A booming note of music sounds off from the direction of the stage and the inevitable happens. The people, who were seemingly lifeless before, spring to life. Jumping up from their chairs and stamping the grass, they let out their uncontrollable screams of adoration and happiness. One note of a familiar song has breathed a new breath of life into the people. The stillness, heavy and thick before, is now gone, lost within the passion of their hearts.
The stage also springs to life. Music plays and lights flash as the heartbeats of five men begin to rise. They are the cause behind all of this; the music, the screams, the laughter, and the excitement all belongs to them. The five, hidden from the people, bow their heads for a moment, hoping the sound of the people’s happiness will calm the field of butterflies that has formed inside each one of them. This is not successful. One thought and one thought only is on all five of their minds: 60,000 people are about to scream my name.
The show begins and the night is alive. Some people scream, others sing along, while still others watch in stunned silence, shedding tears of joy. This single night is the night of the people’s lives and passion runs high with each passing breath.
The five on stage are tireless, exuberating an endless supply of energy. The people feed off of this energy and the five feed off of the people. There is a balance between them, a balance that only they can feel and that only they can understand. Something almost like magic is in the air and the people breathe it; the five live it.
As the night begins to draw to a close, the people beg within themselves to make the night, the moment, last forever. The five continue to give their all, not wanting the night to end themselves, but as the hour draws late the end must come. The five throw themselves into their words, their music, weaving a few final threads of magic into the souls of the people. The last note is held out for forever, but not even that is long enough.
The sound dies down and the people leave; only the stillness is left in their place. The magic that was in the air lives in the retreating crowd, morphing from magic into a memory. The night is over, but it is not dead. This night will live in the hearts of the people forever.
The five, now off of the stage, sit together trying to grasp what they’ve just experienced. In the depths of their souls, they realize that they’ve given a great gift to all of the people. But that realization can’t surface to a place in their minds where they can grasp it and make it believable. The magic of the people now lives in them, something they will cherish during every waking moment for the rest of their lives. The five look at each other, smiling, knowing they’ve accomplished something special. They all know one thing in their hearts; a secret that is shared between these five men: The moment is now, but the experience is for a lifetime.