May I suggest

Friday night at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival Main stage; Red Molly is covering Susan Werner's song, with Susan weaving in additional harmony. The rain has stopped, but I am tired, wet and cold.

Miranda is sitting next to me bubbling over with little giggles of joy. She has had a very good day.

May I suggest to you

This is my first night at Falcon Ridge since my mother died. A week ago, Mairead left for Japan. During Dar Williams set, I Skyped her in.

May I suggest this is the best part of your life.

Dar started her set with "The Babysitter's Here".

She says do me a favor don't go with a guy who would make you choose and

Mairead has chosen Japan. She has moved halt the world away to teach English and be nearer her girlfriend. Dar ends her set, like she usually does at Falcon Ridge singing "Iowa". The whole hillside holds up their flashlights, glowsticks, cellphones, or any other source of light, turning the whole hill into a human glowworm grotto, revealing the contours of the otherwise dark cloud. I wonder how many people come to Falcon Ridge specifically for that moment. I wonder what role it plays in bringing Dar back to Falcon Ridge.

And we walk in the world of safe people, and at night we walk into our houses and burn.

Earlier in the day, Miranda stepped out onto the workshop stage at Falcon Ridge. She had volunteered to work that stage as a great opportunity to learn more stage craft while listening to great music. The big set on the workshop stage on Friday was Vance Gilbert giving a critique of various performers. Vance is a great performer and can give scathing, yet productive critiques in a humorous way, slewing as many sacred cows along the way as possible.

He asked performers to get up and play a song that they are having trouble with. Miranda got up and performed her latest song. She had played it in public the first time, the night before at The Front Porch, one of the many song circles that cover the hillside late at night when there aren't performances at the main stage. She told Vance she didn't think it went all that well and was trying to figure out what to do with it.

Miranda has a strong stage presence. She approached the mic with confidence and started her song, not showing any trepidation about Vance saying "Freeze", and then illustrating to the gathered crowd what she was doing wrong. When Vance did stop her, it was with words of praise and Miranda continued on her song, with various interruptions and suggestions from Vance, and some great play between the two of them and the person doing the sign language interpretation at the edge of the stage.

Afterwords others approached Miranda. They told her she had done great the night before and asked her to play her song again. Later, she was asked to perform at a small stage for volunteers. It was in the middle of Dar Williams set, but she was willing to miss even Dar for a chance to work on her performance. She played a twenty minute set and was followed by Vance Gilbert. Afterwards the stage manager told her, "You just got to open for Vance Gilbert!"

And that's how she won the pretty girl game.

During Dar's set, she spoke about how we are all interconnected. She may not have known how interconnected that moment was, Miranda briefly telling Mairead about her experience and then all of us listening to Dar on a hillside in New York and somewhere in Japan, tied together via technology.

This is the best part of your life.