Common Ground Tour - Variety Show

I caught up with Common Ground, thanks to Chris and Bailey Freckmann who picked me up at the Seattle-Tacoma airport. After rush hour traffic and dinner with the group, preparations for the variety show were underway
- acts were practiced, lyrics were written down, and skit participants recruited.

MC'ed by Jonathan Meyerholtz and Josh Stolan (!) whose names seem to have become interchangeable during the tour, act followed after act in rapid succession, interlaced with jokes about group members and "revealing" nap photos stealthily taken on the Bethel bus.

I am adding some photos from the variety show, plus my own story that I told, loosely inspired by the poem "Two Dead Boys."





Oh, What a Thrilling Flight!
Ladies and gentlemen, skinny and stout,
I’ll tell you a tale I know nothing about.
The admission is free, so pay at the door,
Now pull up a chair and sit on the floor.

One bright day in the middle of the night,
I left home to go on a non-stop flight.
I boarded a plane from San Jose to Seattle,
together with a herd of rather mad, human cattle.

The cattle were noisy, the cattle were bored,
Some fell asleep, some gently snored.
Many stuck cords into outlets while waiting,
Talked on their phones -- oh-so-important work projects contemplating.

But we all woke up as we saw the approaching crew.
When we saw the six flight attendants and the captain, we immediately knew,
This was going to be,
No ordinary flight, THAT we could see.

For we saw that the captain was blind, and so was his crew.
I am telling the truth, I trust you know that it's true.
When they arrived at the gate, ready to board the plane,
Each one of them carried a red-and-white cane.

When that crew walked off into the cockpit,
They were preceded by a guide dog named Sprocket.
They asked us to take our seats without making a sound,
The stewardess, that is, helped by the hound.

Suddenly, though, a man with no legs came walking by,
and kicked the poor guide dog into his thigh.
A flight marshall came to cart him away,
But the man ran for his life, and is still gone today.

With the captain blind, and the poor hound out of commission,
Who would get us safely to Seattle? we passengers began to reason.
Until suddenly, a sound came out of the speakers into our ears,
The captain pleading with us, desperately looking for brave volunteers.

Is there anyone out there,
Who would dare,
To follow the guidance of my hand,
And fly this plane, bring it down unto land?

So I pondered whether to follow the motto
Of my mother's great-uncle Otto,
who used to proclaim "Out with the old,
And in with be bold."

Yes, I told myself and the crew,
I will do it, and so I flew,
Through the air safely steering this flying beast,
Landing it safely on the Seatac runway, last but not least.

The ride was a bit bumpy,
And even now my throat feels still lumpy.
But I learned from the best,
who assure me and the rest.
"Do not get fluttered,
Do not loose heart,
Be bold, creative, and sing it!"
"Keep calm," God says, "and bring it!"

You might want to check as much as you're able,
With the only eyewitness to the facts of my fable.
If you doubt whether my story is true,
Just ask the blind captain, he saw it too.

Location:First Lutheran Church, Bothell, WA