A number of fine individuals have relayed their experience of UH3 to me in the past few days; it is remarkable the diversity of stories that are found in an hour of creative mass. We've mulled about the idea of having a formal opportunity or setting for attendees to respond and post what captured their imagination or disturbed them: the dissonance, the ambiguity, the harmony, the emptiness (perhaps this blog is as fine a place as any). I'd like to claim that each set piece was carefully orchestrated to lead everyone to the same elevated place, but we hardly know how the experience unfolds. And most often we find our best efforts miss, and our hacks are endeared.

My favorite moment was looking out at the crowd during the hymn, and seeing a dear friend cupping his hands as if receiving water from a fall. That made the evening for me. Musically, the hymn was my favorite moment as well, and as it goes, we spent the least time preparing it (many thanks to Phil Peterson of Grace Church for scoring that wonder). Fawning over Joel's piano playing also makes the personal annals; I rather fancy the perched position on the edge of the CP-70.

And the closing piece by Messiaen, featuring Austin's documentation of an anonymous baby, a dog and his master, and baristas behind the counter, still haunts me. As it relates to the theme of the night, I saw it as a beautiful honor to the minutia of our human lives; a peek into the simple delight that God finds in the details of his Creation.

Should any of you wish to share your experience or meanings please do so here, we'd love to know what you made sense of... nonsense, just as good.