What Rocks You - October 6, 2022 | Kids Out and About Toronto <

What Rocks You

October 6, 2022

Debra Ross

"I don't know, it just doesn't seem like it's the kind of thing you'd do," my friend Alexis said.

Alexis had just finished interviewing me for my monthly morning news segment on Good Day Rochester, and in the break afterward I'd told her that I was headed to Los Angeles for the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert. Maybe people's minds have a hard time picturing middle-aged CEOs at 6-hour rock-and-roll marathons. Or maybe it was just that Alexis couldn't quite imagine the professional Kids Out And About lady scream-singing "We Will Rock You!" with 17,000 other Gen-Xers and the remaining members of Queen and the Foo Fighters. But of course, there's a lot more to most people than meets the eye.

Last Tuesday's concert tribute to Taylor Hawkins, the Foos' drummer who passed away earlier this year, spanned 50 years of rock and roll with dozens of music heroes from three generations. For me, it was the concert of a lifetime, with the best of the best in the music industry coming together to honor one of its own. It was the pinnacle of one of the things I love most: Even though I can't create music myself, I get to be wholly absorbed in what I see as the ultimate demonstration of how alive we humans truly are.

But maybe it doesn't mean that to you. My own kids hate crowded loud concerts to the same degree that I love them, and that's completely fine! I may adore Rush and the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Van Halen (and thanks to the concert, I have a new infatuation with Pink), but they (and you) may love fishing or car racing or rock climbing (please be careful!) or cooking or computer programming or hockey or scrapbooking or any of the millions of other ways we humans express ourselves.

Debra Ross, publisherThere is nothing quite as gratifying for a mom as watching her kids become themselves. As they're learning how to pack living into life, they're watching the people close to them: If you seek happiness, so will they. So live what rocks you, and someday, they will too.

Deb