Elena 
I was a little surprised to find that my post on Monday, featuring my maternal angst over two of my boys going to Bonnaroo, was so controversial! Point taken. This is the posting I meant to write!
It started a couple of months ago… I started to hear Sam and Gabe talk about something between themselves. Sounded like banana or bon bon and kangaroo… and then I figured out of course… Bonnaroo!! So I jumped right on Google to learn all I could about it! Here’s something I read online about a past Bonnaroo festival.
The 10th Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival ended on Sunday, and more than 85,000 people returned to civilian life, their ears ringing with too much music. Because it is a brand with a mysterious grip on hale young-adult Americans with mystical tendencies, because it broke little aesthetic ground and because it’s a milestone year, let’s do consumer service first.
Oh wonderful – mystical tendencies. I’m old enough to remember all about “mystical tendencies.”
The amount of dust on the festival part of the site — maybe a quarter of the 750-acre plot owned by Bonnaroo’s organizers — was staggering, and finally hard to live with. Often, it felt like an effort to find an area without dust; often, the areas without dust were muddy. Camping? Lots of it, well demarcated, separated into areas with funny names, and I heard tales of deer ticks, but otherwise I can’t help you; I was at a price-jacked Holiday Inn.
$250 apiece, with 85,000 other people and a chance at Lyme disease – sign us up!! Mr. Pete wanted to have them make payments from his credit card but I told him no way dude – we’re digging into the retirement fund for this adventure! $500 plus another $500 for food and gas and maybe another $500 for spending money… want them to have a good time after all.
Family tent? hecks yea! let’s rent them a pop up camper too! With the rental car to pull it. Sam’s been driving a couple of years now. He’s up for it, even if this is the longest he has ever driven by himself. Trust God. Trust the kid.
And while I wish I could go too, I’m fine staying here not worrying about the weather or road conditions because – well because I’m trusting in God that despite any of our decisions or their plans, it’s all going to turn out great! In my brand of Christianity, there are never consequences for our decisions. Not bad consequences anyway. Ever. Not to us. Especially when we’re going to let them have such a wonderful adventure and growth opportunity!
And I trust my boys to make good decisions because Bonnaroo is such a wholesome place. Even Frederica Mathewes‘s son Steven who attended the Bonnaroo festival wrote:
I had certainly been to concerts before and I had a vague idea of what to expect, but the hedonism was so much more rampant than I would have ever expected. They – the festival promoters – they make motions toward try to come off as – well, maybe that’s too harsh – I do believe that they are anti-drugs, and anti- anything that would be illegal or dangerous. I know they don’t want to promote that kind of thing.
But hey! They’ll get to meet lots of new people!
and there’s shopping too!
wholesome clean environment
and then there’s this guy in the middle of this page that I can’t bring myself to copy and paste – old hangups… sorry.
Gee whiz- I certainly want to give the blessing to go forth and do whatever at that! I’m certain that when the Psalmist wrote “He’ll preserve their going out and their coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore”
something like Bonnaroo was exactly what he was referring too!
At a mere 600 miles away, it’ just a chance for some independent fun and adventure.
Oh and I’ll just ignore this – it’s all good!
I went to lots of crazy concerts when I was in my twenties. I did not get drunk, high or "laid". I listened to some amazing artists – who are now on elevator music.
My perception of your view at this point is that everyone, everywhere that you do not have control of – including college and Catholic school- is evil. Yet, there are loads of people just like you who send their kids out after being trained and find,that if there is not too much of a collar, they turn out fine.
There are plenty of good people who go to these things and arrive home alive. They have an amazing experiences. It broadens their perspective and gives them information to become adults. You did it through dance….correct? Sounds like Pete did it through music. You do let your boys play music in clubs….they are musical.
You both were lukewarm Catholics for 8 years you said. Still, you became amazing adults raising a great family.
I am sorry you worry so. Sometimes, when they reach that age, you just need to trust that you have done a good job.
Ps- I should have sent that in an email. Feel free not to post it.
Am I not allowed to blog away frustrations and opinions? You know, these are my kids. AND I totally get I can't protect them 24/7. I'm almost (almost!!!) used to Calvin being on his own and making his own choices. But their my kids ya know?
What I don't get is, the kids are there, they got there safely, they are enjoying the festival (probably even more since I bought them soap and baby wipes as well as meat and cheese before they left) so what's the problem? Do I have to be all rainbow and lollipops about every decision they make?
In her time mom would have just written a letter (several in fact, in drafts) but I blog. It's cheaper than therapy. And I totally enjoyed writing the parody – it actually made me laugh at the situation more.