Meredith's favorite musical artist is Alan Jackson. So, I took her to one of his concerts a couple of weeks ago, and we had a great time. I appreciate his down to earth, normal guy, humble approach to his music, and therefore, was mildly surprised that he "ended" the concert only to come back for an encore.
I really dislike the encore. A singer or band gives a false ending, waits for the crowd to cheer loudly for a prolonged time, and then comes out to appease the applauding fans. What's the point of all of that? It seems to me that it's an ego driven thing. There is something inside of performers that crave the applause. They need to see and hear that they are connecting with the audience, and they need to see and hear that the audience wants more.
So, we do it. We clap and scream hoping the house lights never come up (because that's the real indication that the concert is over). If we are lucky, the band won't put us through it again...there's not much worse than the multiple encore call.
As much as I dislike the encore, I'm fully aware that we are all susceptible to calling for the applause of others. We post comments on facebook hoping people will make comments and give the thumbs up indicating they liked the post. We write blogs and hope people tell us they like it. When nobody says anything at all, we question the significance of the thing, and then ultimately question our own significance.
Somebody likes that status update, comments on that blog post, and we feel like we are connecting. We feel like they want more of us. It feels so great, and then someone abruptly turns on the house lights. That's the way it's supposed to be though. The abrupt return of the house lights always gives us another opportunity to realize that our significance is already established in the one who created and recreated us. May we always make the most of those opportunities.
