The Pursuit...

This tear-jerker gets me every time. EVERY time! If you have 20 minutes to spare, watch it.

I have never been near the struggle portrayed by Will Smith in this amazing movie, "The Pursuit of Happyness", but when I packed everything I could (including my 88-key Yamaha) into a little compact Saturn, and drove from Nashville, TN back to Amador County, I [ironically] looked back in my rear view mirror at America's Country Music Capitol and drove across this great land with nothing more than what was in my car and in my purse. With the help of of some amazing people in Amador County who never stopped believing in me and Amador Community News, I was able to make it back here to California with a few shirts on my back, shoes on my feet, and the faith it took to beat the odds and naysayers that might shoot holes in my own "pursuit of happyness".

It's scary, not knowing what the future holds. I've lived in a quite a few of Amador County hamlets - Pioneer, Jackson, Ione, Drytown - and each person I spent time with had nothing but good to say about what I've accomplished with ACN, offered their views and opinions, and encouraged me to keep going...even when I felt discouraged, felt rejected, felt like a target of opposition.

I have this crazy habit of hitting the ground running, wherever I land. I did so when I moved from CA to Nashville. Then I moved to Sacramento, and again...I hit the ground, running. But the climate and feel is a lot different here in Sac than it was/is in Nashville. I'm a musician, so it was kinda easy for me to "plug in" and make a difference in Nashville. I auditioned and made it into The Nashville Choir as a Soprano I (talk about intimidation! LOL) and had the opportunity to sing/mingle with greats such as Ricky and Sharon Skaggs, Alison Krauss, Phil Keaggy and other amazing artists that I only dreamed about meeting "someday". Also at that time, my son, Kevin was off in Iraq, my daughter in USMC boot camp.

Nothing made me feel more patriotic than coordinating the event of "In God We Trust" for The Nashville Choir in 2009. Director John E. Coates had a dream: he would often walk past the Bicentennial Mall and had always envisioned the choir singing there. I listened to him and several others over several (okay, a LOT of) cups of coffee; eventually, we presented the idea to the Choir. We had Phil Stacey (American Idol) as our headliner, and went out to get sponsors. The event "competed" with the annual event by the River, the headliner was Wynonna Judd. How do you compete with Wynonna? Come to find out (and this was my complete and total ignorance at the time)...music is music in Music City. Our event would not compete, but complement the event by the River. Our event would be over just in time for folks to get some dinner at the local restaurants, then saunter on down, get a good place to sit for Wynonna's evening show.

Ah, but then you have unpredictable Mother Nature. Ha! Rain and thunder. Fortunately for us, we were within walking distance of the Bicentennial Mall, so we packed up the production team, the choir risers, the pop up tents, t-shirt booth, etc. and moved everything inside, where the show went on as planned. The place was packed. Thunder and lightening outside; Mother Nature's fireworks just added to the program. Everyone left that place inspired and blessed.

Another wonderful success was the planning of the TN Marine Family's Fallen Heroes Memorial Ride. I was the VP/Director of PR/Media at the time; Scott Steele of Steele Country was the headliner. Getting supporters (like the TN Titans), donations for care packages for the troops, and vendors for the event took team effort...and the result was over 75 bikers with American flags waving on a biker route that the media just ate up. After all, how could anyone ignore Patriot Riders and the entire lot riding for ONE cause? And in the chaos of several care package drives, I thought about my son in Iraq, and made sure that he knew that the care package I sent would be from me and his TN Marine Family. It's a little more effort for the greater happiness of Marines that would be without family during the holidays.

In planning Nashville's National Day of Prayer event...in our meetings, I often couldn't take my eyes off of Sharon Skaggs and she stood there in prayer, speaking as if Jesus Christ himself were standing right there in the circle with us. What a woman of faith! And when the event happened against ALL odds...during the Nashville Floods...Ricky Skaggs just said, "Let's have it at our church." And it happened...and though my feet were aching as I walked from dressing room to dressing room, to the several lobbies of the very large church, to the Green Room, to the media who could be there, considering the floods...nothing could make me more happy than to sit down, watch the Production Crew lower the booms to the stage to "5...4...3...2...1" and then the strains of: "A family who prays..."  And I closed my eyes.

Powerful.

The "American Dream" is a dream that is shared by many, but the common thread is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I call it the "Holy Trinity of America".

Life. Liberty. The Pursuit of Happiness.

It doesn't matter what race, color, religion, gender, ethnicity or creed you live by...rich or poor, bond or free...as long as you honestly live by it...and reach out to your community and make it known that you do NOT and will not tolerate anything that goes against life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. There are criminals out there that hide behind these values like the cowards. But there are those out there in the "1 percent" who also hide behind them like cowards.

Wow. It's going to be an interesting year for voters in America!

Happy 4th, everyone! Never forget where you came from.

Carol Harper, Editor
Amador Community News