Hello from two happy road warriors

Hello from I-40 in North Carolina. I’m writing to you as the wagon barrels down the highway toward the Atlantic Ocean. Tonight in Wilmington is the last east coast concert of our Revolutionary Acts of Optimism Tour. And then … tomorrow … we start heading west.

If you’ve seen a concert so far this year, you’ll understand the significance of that “westward turn.” And if you haven’t yet seen the show, consider this a little preview of what’s to come. ☀️

(Psst! Check our tour calendar if you want to find out where we’re taking the tour next, and send Jamie an email if you’d like to get an invitation to a show!)

This tour has been my favorite tour we’ve done yet. I’ve got all kinds of photo album pics to show you below, and some big thoughts I had the other night after one of the concerts …

Tour, Two Months In:
This past week, as I was drifting off to sleep after a concert, I was thinking about the people who’ve told me at many shows this summer their reaction to the song “Shade.” Many of them have been parents, who shared with me that their kids are the most tangible example of the “trees” they’ve planted in their lifetimes.

That they planted them,
that they committed themselves to help them grow,
that it is really hard work,
and that, at some point,
they release them to bloom and become part of the generation that will do the same for the ones that come after.

And then I was thinking about the big — the really big — challenges we face in our world. Like the climate crisis. Here’s a photo I came across a few weeks ago that starkly illustrates the task we have before us:

Have you heard the song “Letter From the Future” on our new record? This plaque — placed at the site of what used to be an Icelandic glacier — is a breathtaking link to the idea written in that song about the responsibility we have to the future, isn’t it?

The climate crisis seems like such a big. problem. So big, that it can be difficult to imagine how we solve it. And easy to see how hard it will be to solve.

And yet … like that plaque says: we know what to do.
The imperative to do it … is written on the faces and in the future of the generation we’re raising now.

But here’s the good news: we’ve done this before.

No, we haven’t solved the climate crisis before — but we’ve tackled other really big challenges before:

We’ve eradicated diseases,
we’ve put a stop to fascist authoritarians,
we’ve expanded human rights to marginalized populations,
we’ve gone to the moon and performed science experiments on Mars.

And we’ve overcome addictions,
we’ve earned college degrees while single-parenting,
we’ve learned to walk again after injuries,
we’ve raised children and planted trees and done a whole lot of hard things that have built our muscle for doing The Hard Things.

We can do it again.
We can tackle the big challenges that face us now.
It’s possible …
because generations before us have done it,
because we’ve built the strength to do it,
because when we assemble our collective resolve, we will be unstoppable.

I am optimistic … because I’m in this with all of you.

… and those are the thoughts with which I drifted off to sleep that night.🌱

It’s been such a wonderful summer so far. I’ve been sharing daily stories and photos of all our adventures on my Instagram and Facebookprofiles. Come on over and re-live the experiences with us. And don’t forget to say hi while you’re there!

And also: every Wednesday we have a deeper conversation with each other about the stuff we’re learning along the way in each a new episode of our podcast, Misfit Stars.

Listen anywhere you listen to podcasts, or at MisfitStars.com.