Kim Washburn - Breaking Through By Grace: The Bono Story

Breaking

Through

by Grace

the

Bono

Story

Kim Washburn

For the indispensable K.K. and Andrew,
my most essential collaborator.

No matter who wins or loses this football game, the crowd is going to cry.

It has been five months since September 11, 2001, when a terrorist attack on the United States took thousands of lives by hijacking four airplanes and flying them into buildings.

America is still struggling to get off her knees. Now a rock band from Ireland is about to help her up.

This rock band, U2, had been inspiring audiences all over the world for more than twenty years. And on this night, February 3, 2002, they set up their heart-shaped stage in the biggest arena America had to offer: halftime at the Super Bowl.

In the darkness of the arena, energy surges through the audience like a lightning storm. U2s powerful song Beautiful Day has thundered through the stadium and faded out. Seventy thousand voices are screaming their support.

Then, unexpectedly, a gigantic screen, as long as the stage and as high as the stadium, rises behind the band. The glowing white words September 11th, 2001 scroll to the sky, followed by the name of each person who died in the terrorist attacks that day.

Later Bono, the lead singer of the band, would admit, I [couldnt] look at the names. If I looked at the names, I wouldnt be able to sing. So he faces the crowd, his voice burning through the emotion of the night as he sings a haunting lullaby.

Sleep. Sleep tonight. And may your dreams be realized

Then a cascade of notes from the electric guitar signals the beginning of a new song. The drums and the bass join in to drive the beat.

Muffled by the boom of the sound system and the cheers of the crowd, Bono, the biggest rock star in the world, utters a prayer from Psalm 51:15: O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth your praise.

As the procession of names floats past, Bono calls out America! Cheers explode from the stadium, and Bono runs around the entire heart-shaped stage that embraces the crowd. And then he takes the microphone and sings U2s anthem of love and hope, Where the Streets Have No Name.

The band could play all night and the song would feel too short. When the screen falls to the ground, Bono makes the shape of a heart on his chest with his hands. Then the singer opens his jacket and reveals that the fabric of the liner is an American flag. The music surrenders to the shouts of the frenzied crowd. Tears stream down the cheeks of everyone in the stadium.

Bono performs during halftime of Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans, Louisiana, on February 3, 2002.

Bono has sung a love song to the wounded hearts of Americans.

Two days before the Super Bowl, far away from huge stages and cheering crowds, Bono had been composing a different kind of love song.

At midnight in New York City, he slipped into a restaurant and made his way to the back room. A diverse group of decision makers, strategists, financial planners, church leaders, and generous donors were huddled around tables. Together they wanted to come up with serious, practical ways to end extreme poverty. Extreme poverty occurs when a person cannot pay for food, water, shelter, clothing, or health care. Today, there are almost one and a half billion people living in these conditionsmany of them in South Asia and Africa. Ending extreme poverty in the world would take lots of fresh ideas, money, commitment, and prayer. But that was why this group had gathered: they wanted to change the world.

Bono had not come here to make music. He was here to make a difference.

When you sing, Bono explained, you make people [open] to change in their lives. You make yourself [open] to change in your life. But in the end, youve got to become the change you want to see in the world. Im actually not a very good example of thatIm too selfish, and the right to be ridiculous is something I hold too dearbut still, I know its true.

This gathering of people fighting to end poverty was part of the World Economic Forum, which is an organization that seeks to improve the lives of ordinary people all around the world. This wasnt exactly the place youd go to find a rock star! But Bonos heart had been moved by the desperately poor, the people that Jesus called the least of these. When Bono read the Bible, he found

And so Bono goes into unexpected places to work with unexpected people. He follows his heart and uses his powerful gift of communication with politicians and preachers, presidents, and popes.

Its unusual for a rock starespecially a rock star as well-known as Bonoto spend time working for others. I know how absurd it is to have a rock star talk about the World Health Organization or debt relief or AIDS in Africa, he said. But he also knows that when he talks, people listen.

This night in New York City, Bono joined a serious discussion. As a team they would learn from experts, try to understand the issues and the problems, and come up with practical ways to change the world for the desperately poor. The man who sang in front of millions of cheering fans wanted to lend his voice to those who had none.

As a young man, Bonos heart had simply led him to music. But once he was in a band, working with friends to create music that moved him, love came into the room, made itself comfortable, and decided to make some changes. Now love wanted him to move mountains.

Before love took over, though, rage had its day for Bono.

Before the rock star, before the voice, before the music, before the famous name, Bono was Paul David Hewson. He was born on May 10, 1960the second son of Bob and Iris Hewson.

At the time Ireland, his proud and beloved country, was engaging in a civil war. Catholics and Protestants raged over their differences. They drew battle lines based on the differences in what they believed. The violence went on for a long time, and before it was over more than 3,000 people had died. This time in Irelands history is called The Troubles.

Because the two groups of people were so suspicious of each other, they lived in separate neighborhoods and attended separate schools in separate parts of the city.

To this day, Bono is saddened that religion had been the cause of so much pain and violence. Weve seen [religious differences] tear our country in two, he said. You hold onto religion rules, regulations, traditions. I think what God is interested in is peoples hearts.

Bonos parents, Iris and Bob, fell in love and got married under highly unusual circumstances, since Bob was Catholic and Iris was Protestant. Their love for each other mattered more than the differences in the way they practiced their faith, and they didnt take sides in the Troubles that were tearing Ireland apart. Even at a young age, Bono understood that their familys lack of extreme sides in the religion wars made them different in their neighborhood.

Bono attended a Protestant primary school called the Ink Bottle. Occasionally, when the headmaster looked the other way, Bono and the other students would kick a ball over the fence that followed along the river and chase after it. It has very good memories for me, that school, Bono once said with a laugh.