Accepting the premise that Spring ’77 was the apex of the Grateful Dead’s history, which one of the 30 shows the band performed during that period was the climax of the tour? The third week of the tour – which included stops in Boston, Ithaca, Buffalo, St. Paul, and Chicago – may provide the answer, although choosing any one of these shows as the Dead’s best show of all time may be as futile an endeavor as trying to choose the most beautiful national park, the best full-suspension mountain bike, or the greatest athlete ever.

Despite the folly of these kinds of comparisons, the conventional wisdom is that the May 8th, 1977 show at Barton Hall, on the campus of Ithaca’s Cornell University, was the Dead’s finest moment, just as assuredly as Michael Jordan is generally considered the greatest athlete of all time, with apologies to LeBron James, Muhammad Ali, Roger Federer, Pele, Usain Bolt, and Michael Phelps (who is almost as well known for issuing the lamest apology by an Olympic medalist after being outed in 2009 for smoking weed from a “marijuana pipe,” AKA, a bong).

My inner rebel leads me to break ranks and name the May 9th show as the pick of the week. And, indeed, in many ways it is a superior show. Just the opening Help/Slipknot/Franklin’s gets the Buffalo show off to a better start than the opening tunes of the Barton Hall concert. But in the final analysis, I decided to ditch rebellion in favor of what is inarguably the best Scarlet/Fire of all time. The debate over whether 5/8/77 was the Dead’s best show ever will continue, but for now the issue of its preeminence in This Week in Grateful Dead History has been settled.

If you look at the set list for this show, you will notice that the second set begins with Take a Step Back. In reality, this Set 2 opener is merely stage banter, intended to ease the strain on the individuals being pushed up against the stage from behind by the, shall we say, overzealous crowd. (Note: This was a decidedly East Coast phenomenon; I was immediately in front of the stage for plenty of West Coast Dead shows, and was never shoved from behind to the point of becoming “real bug-eyed.”) Despite not really being part of the set list, this segment of the Barton Hall, ’77 recording became so beloved by Deadheads that it was given a place in the set list, and is often jokingly referred to in the context of why this particular show is considered the Dead’s G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time.)

Bobby’s beseechment that the crowd “take a step back” takes on the deeper significance when illuminated by a lyric in the true second set opener, Scarlet Begonias: 

Once in awhile you get shown the light

In the strangest of places if you look at it right

The advice to “take a step back” suggests a valuable change of perspective. It’s far too easy to get caught up in our overzealousness to get as close to the stage in life as possible (read: make as much money as we can, mindlessly race about from place to place, gather the maximum number of “likes” on our social media sites, argue our political point of view at the expense of our friendships), that we lose sight of what’s truly important to us, what gives our lives meaning and purpose.

The need to take a step back increases as we get older for two reasons: 1. We have less time to “look at it right,” which is something we’ve been meaning to do for years, but have been procrastinating, assuming we still had plenty of time. After all, there are bills to pay, meetings to attend, and points to make. 2. Advancing age not only affords us the perspective and wisdom to change our outlook, it compels us to do so. As we become the “elders” in our communities, it’s incumbent upon us to model the leadership and guidance needed by those who look up to us.

My model for righteous living, and particularly for righteous aging, is that of a three-legged stool. The names of the legs are: Diet, Exercise (or Movement), and Attitude. All three are vital, for if any one of them is not in place the stool will topple over. Heeding the advice to take a step back is tending to the integrity of the Attitude leg of the stool. 

When we rush the stage of life without regard to how our actions affect those around us, we exhibit an attitude of selfishness, impatience, and insensitivity. In taking a step back, we give ourselves and our fellow human beings some room to breathe. From this place we can transform selfishness to generosity, impatience to calm, thoughtlessness to compassion. 

Mastering our attitude is the single most important step we can take toward empowering ourselves. We can’t always control how much money we have, how many red lights appear when we are in a hurry, whether someone likes us, or who they vote for. And we certainly can’t change the year we were born. But we can control our attitude about all of these things, especially if we take yet another step back to regain a good perspective from which we can see things a bit more clearly.

Keeping the Attitude leg of the stool strong by taking a step back won’t necessarily lead to prosperity, timeliness, or popularity, and it won’t restore lost youth. But to answer the culminating question, yes, it does make us feel better. It makes everyone feel better, especially those who are also trying to enjoy the show.