The hardest thing right now

[BigAl84]

After 2018/2019 I thought I had put to bed and dealt with the fact that the original 5 would most likely never perform again. The passing of Christine really makes that final. I was introduced to the band in 1997. My first love with the band wasn't the Rumours album, it was their live performances. I don't lament a final album with all 5, but the realization that they'll never hit the stage as a complete unit is a gut punch.

I also don't want to see Lindsey and Stevie go to the end with bitterness between them. How great is it that Christine and John were able to be friends and put the past behind them, seemingly decades ago. I love this passage from a recent Rolling Stone article about Christine:

Some of the best moments in Fleetwood Mac’s final tours, reuniting all five of the classic lineup, came during the Stevie Nicks/Lindsey Buckingham solo showcases. Every night, Christine would sit next to John on the piano bench, out of sight from most of the audience, just the two of them whispering and giggling together. They always huddled like two old friends, just sharing a private laugh. It was such a touching sight — so sweet and civilized, in the middle of all that emotional sturm und drang. She brought that warmth out in people. Even these people.

When it comes down to Lindsey and Stevie, it's so sad to see their animosity baked into their public persona, like an expectation of their coexistence. Time is so finite at this point in their lives. Knowing their animosity will be part of their epitaph is an incredibly hard pill to swallow. When the time comes, we probably won't see passages like the one written above in the context of Lindsey and Stevie.