Now, I’m not a religious person, but my parents are bible-bangers so I had to grin and bear three long years of confirmation classes every Wednesday night. I always carried out the same routine - Junta Disc 2 during the car ride there, and Disc 1 during the class.

One day, while listening to the ever so amazing Fee, my counselor guy asked me who I was listening to. I casually replied, “Phish” (forgetting that he obviously didn’t know who that was). Then, he glanced at my notebook and said, “Oh, I get it,” while pointing at my multiple Phish stickers. “I thought it was some fishing lure company.”

I was about to sit him down and explain everything to him right then and there. But then he killed it. He said, “Well, you need to turn it off… it's obviously not more important than God.”

“Wow,” I thought… I had no answer; I wanted to tell him that it was a tuff question, but I held back seeing that I was INSIDE a church. So, I told him that God obviously created these men to play beautiful music and that by listening to them; I was enjoying the talents the Lord had provided. He was stunned.

“Well, what’s so good about them?” he asked curiously. By this time, my group of five was also interested in the type of music this dye wearing, scruffy-haired, hippy kid listened to. So, I stood up in front of my table (and in front of the class) and said that Phish is like having Jesus walk in…hug you…say he loves you…offer you a sip of his coke…and then groove out.

Needless to say, no one understood and they all laughed. All except for my counselor…who now listens to Phish on a regular basis.

This story just goes to prove that no matter how you try and explain Phish, and no matter how many people just don’t “understand," keep on trying because you just may share the love with someone who you’d least expect.

- []Dhish[]-[]ead