We went to the Arlo Guthrie concert at the Tilles Center last Saturday. It was a wonderful event.

Everytime we go there we just want to shout out - "This is great. We don't have to get on the train and go to New York to have a great evening.

"We don't have to drive into the city. The entertainment came to us!"

It is such a special thing to be able to have quality entertainment in your own village -town and county.

The first piece on the program was the introduction to Candide by Leonard Bernstein. Something we just love. No wonder we like writing about government!

What added to the interest was that the concept of the performance was a first. The kind of folk music Mr. Guthrie plays was translated into orchestral music for the entire Long Island Philharmonic. The music was grand.

During his talk with the audience, Mr. Guthrie - can we call him Arlo - said one hundred years ago all the songs he sang and the music he played would have been sung and played by the audience - in their homes.

Today we expect professional performances of everything. We have given up the pleasure of performing ourselves, for our own sake, in place of high expectations of exquisite performances.

We have lost something in the doing. It reminded us of the joys of singing and playing music - of times at home singing songs while doing things around the house.

Somehow, that has fallen to the wayside.

It reminded us of a bigger truth. We seem to be holding up giant standards for many things. We are forgetting we are just humans, and that the real kick of life is in doing things ourselves, not watching peak performances by others.

Here's a shout for "adequate." Let's take some of the joy in performing back for ourselves. Not with the idea of doing the "great performance," but just for the joy of making noise, and sound, and music - and being real.

Arlo had the entire audience sing and we all just loved it! Let's take control again. Let's sing where ever we are this week, just to remember what fun we used to have!

And, take a look at what the Tilles Center is offering and don't miss out on the excitement!

-DFK