Earth Day

As this is written I'm looking out over a sunlit skyline of Chicago. But it was rainy (or cloudy at best) in Indianapolis over the weekend. As I have mentioned earlier, we rode a train from Michigan to Chicago, and Friday we drove to Indianapolis for a semi-family reunion and to visit the annual Earth Day celebration in downtown Indy. In past years there were thousands who attended and it was in a major downtown park area. We walked around and enjoyed the beautiful downtown Indianapolis area and then joined the crowd for displays and music.


A high point of the celebration (at least for us) took place in an immense children and youth tent. All kinds of displays but for us the high point was a presentation by the Earth Drummers which includes Seth Utter, one of our grandchildren (middle left in the below picture). He's been in the group for about five years and really enjoys playing percussion instruments.


Our first contact with percussion groups was on the beach in Venice, Florida several years ago and we really enjoyed it. We were in a motel and heard drums and we walked out on the beach and there was a large group performing on the beach. Every kind o drum or percussion instrument you could think of and it was great. So when Seth got involved in his group we were really enthusiastic. It's not a big group but they love what they are doing and they have a lot of variety in instruments. They enter into a performance with a lot of enjoyment and their sense of rhythm and technique is great. I can see Seth continuing with this in years to come because it is not simply some kids having a nice time - it is a music outreach that is really popular with a lot of adults today - adults from all walks of life. And it really takes commitment, talent, and a gift for music.


So if I may aim this at a particular person, I want to say to Seth that the performance was great and I hope you/he will keep performing for years to come. It was worth every second of our trip. And if a person asks, "What's so great about a bunch of drums?," don't knock it until you've heard one of these groups. It'll really get your toes tapping and there's nothing boring about it.