Hi, Everyone! Today I'm announcing the very first thing I would like to do as a part of my time as Mayor. As some of you may have become aware through my posts in the "No Tomorrow Like Today" section which are, for the most part, tarot card draws, but ones that typically discuss the astrological connections that each card has, birthdays are very important to me. The day each one of us came into the world is so incredibly important. Bob Geldof's birthday is coming up very soon and I know he means so much to so many people here ~ and it's in a million different ways. Something I have said in life for a long time is that an artist will only come into your life on the exact day and in the exact moment that they or their music (it usually ends up being both) will have meaning for you. That doesn't mean that day is the LITERAL first time you heard them. It's the first day that you TRULY heard them. The reason you're hearing them now is that there have been changes in your life or within you (usually both) that suddenly make their music have significant meaning for you. It's always life~changing and sometimes even life~saving.
We all share in common that we love the Boomtown Rats and/or Bob Geldof's solo music. Both are great and full of meaning. It helps all of us very deeply that Bob is willing to be so open and honest about incredibly painful things that have happened to him, even though it goes without saying, we wish those things had never happened. Every time someone is willing to share their story openly and honestly, they change or save a life. I know Bob has changed many lives here and for his birthday, I would love for all of us to give him the gift of sharing our individual stories with him. His birthday is on October 5th, so with that day on the very near horizon, please begin to turn your thoughts toward this question:
What is a way in life that Bob's written, sung, or spoken words have changed or even saved your life? From now through his birthday, October 5th, please share in this column your stories, poems, artwork, etc., that are appreciation of this by hitting "REPLY" & sharing your story. I mention lyrics/poems & artwork because if you would rather share the difference Bob has made in your life in one of those ways as opposed to telling a story, please do. Any way of doing this at all will be great! Please add the Hashtag:
somewhere in your contribution just to make sure we can locate what you contribute & then on Bob's October 5th birthday, we'll find a way to repost them (since posts very quickly disappear from the rotating carousel!) I've added the hashtag #GiftsForBob to the bottom of this post so that once it's not in rotation at the top of the page, you can still very easily find it by entering #GiftsForBob into the search bar.
Below follows many Gifts For Bob from the Citizens of Boomtown ~
I have to say Jennifer, your mention of Bob’s 60 minute Australia interview was a sliding door moment for me…
As I mentioned in my bio, I LOVED the Rats in high school and like most, went on with life for a few decades and had put them in my back pocket so to speak, until that interview. The interview randomly showed up on my YouTube feed in 2020 and in the opening scene, was just a few seconds of a Cala that I remembered being at 15 years prior! It was Cala Deia, Mallorca. I was spending a holiday on the other side of the island and had visited Deia for the day, hiking down the mountain and having about three minutes to take in the Cala and then promptly hiked back up the mountain to catch the last bus back to our hotel. I fell in LOVE with Deia and knew I always wanted to go back and stay in Deia for another holiday.
That interview lead me to many others of Bob, what he’d been up to all the years in-between and where The Boomtown Rats are today! This butterfly effect then continued to reveal the Rats were touring again AND playing a venue in Mallorca <3 And I was off!
Unfortunately, they weren’t able to keep the venue date, but the best bit was not only did I have the best time in Deia, it led me to the COB site and the start of a few priceless friendships (more than I have time to share) and that continue to increase as the days/months go on.
So, thank you Bob, for enriching so many lives in so many ways… I’ve been enjoying the Boomtown Rats all over again for the last few years and I’ll close with the sentiment that best resonates with me. Bob states in his NY Times OP-Doc (another great interview) that best describes our purpose on this rock “Act in concert, together, for something else.”
Happy Birthday Bob 🥰 Cheers/Enjoy 🍸 and simply, thank you ❤️ #GiftsForBob
Happy Birthday, Bob! I knew upon becoming Mayor of Boomtown that I wanted to ask everyone to send you messages of what you mean to them on your birthday. Everyone is drawn to music for different reasons ~ for some people it's just the sound of a great song ~ they know it makes them feel good ~ and that's definitely reason enough! But I know for sure there are a lot of us on here for whom your words ~ in songs, interviews, books, and articles ~ have changed and even saved our lives. I'm one of those people.
I've loved the Boomtown Rats music my entire life but what drew me IN to the Boomtown Rats music is is actually the many interviews you generously gave after your beyond painful losses. Your being willing to talk so openly, honestly, and truthfully about your extremely traumatic losses literally brought me back to life because I sat listening to you ~ and only listening to you. Not thinking, for the first time in 5~months, about my own suffering. That simple act brought my breathing back to normal. And then I was able to fall asleep that night. I hadn't slept in 5~months. The reason I hadn't slept in 5~months is that my Chihuahua, Wilbur, was killed by a 3~legged white bull terrier named Aria on March 14th, 2019, at 4:40 in the afternoon. Wilbur and I LOVED our walks together ~ they were everything to us. He was SO happy and content on them and so was I. That late afternoon while Wilbur was contentedly sniffing the grass on the grassy part of the sidewalk and I was standing protectively over him as I always did (and, of course, he had his harness & leash on), Aria and the woman she belongs to emerged from their backyard in what would have been about a minute's walk from there to back inside their house, so that if Wilbur and I had left the apartment we were living in just 5~minutes earlier or 5~minutes later, we would never have encountered them but they emerged from their backyard and Aria pulled the woman she belongs to over to where Wilbur and I were and within a second, I couldn't see most of Wilbur's head any longer because Aria immediately took his head into her mouth and while the woman and I spent 10~minutes trying to pull Aria's fangs out of Wilbur's skull, she wouldn't let go. I pushed up on her top teeth with all my strength and I tried pulling from up above, Aria just wouldn't let go of him. Through all of this I was able to see the side of Wilbur's face and I knew I was losing him but I kept pushing up and pulling up on Aria's teeth, hoping and praying Aria would just drop him (I was holding securely to Wilbur's body with my left hand the entire time) but the unbelievable reality is I watched Wilbur die. I kept crying out, "This can't be happening, this can't be real!" and "Someone please help us! Someone please help Wilbur!", but I watched Wilbur die.
The woman drove Wilbur and me to Murphy Road Animal Hospital, which is only a 60~second drive from where I spent the last moments of Wilbur's life with him, with me holding on to him tightly and hoping and praying that he was maybe still alive and I just couldn't tell. The veterinary staff came running forward as I entered through the door with him calling out for someone to please help Wilbur. They tried for 20~minutes to revive him but in reality Wilbur had died just 10~minutes earlier hearing me call out to him to please live, while we spent our last moments on a sidewalk in the neighborhood he loved so much and was loved so much, Richland~West End in Nashville. Without question, my life as I knew it ended there with him. I can't even think about the next 5~months that followed. I don't know how I found my way through them. I was alive in only the most technical sense.
A night came in mid~August, though, for a reason I can't tell you other than that it was Wilbur's doing. I picked up my phone and started scrolling through You Tube, which I assure you I hadn't had any interest in doing since somewhere in the first couple of weeks of March. I didn't even have to scroll, actually. Sitting at the top of the page was the interview you gave "60 Minutes Australia" in which you said, "Time doesn't heal, it accommodates." That changed everything. Because it's the Truth. While, possibly, some people might find that to be a bleak statement, it personally helped and continues to help me because I just felt very understood hearing it. Many well~intentioned people will tell you that time heals. Maybe it does for some people but I have a feeling that for everyone who has lost someone they love deeply in an extremely traumatic way, time doesn't heal. It does accommodate, though, and in simply feeling understood in that moment, even though you weren't saying it personally to me, it spoke directly to me, and so the moments in which I heard you say that are the moments in which I began to make my gradual return to life. I want to thank you for being so open, honest, and truthful. All of that together can be a very rare gift. All of that was your gift to me. I hope your birthday brings you so many gifts, Bob, of the meaningful kind.
Love,
Jennifer
P. S. The photo of me & Wilbur is from one of the only two Christmases we got to spend together (he was 7 when I adopted him in January, 2017), December 2017. He had an intense little face, at times, like you see here, but Wilbur's intensity was a part of his HILARITY and I miss it so much. You can also see how funny his face was. ❤️
#GiftsForBob