Night Games and a Russian Jew

Sometimes I am just absolutely floored by the creativity in the world. Sometimes, when I’m lucky, I get to watch this creativity first hand. I’ve had this privilege recently and it’s been so amazing to be a part of.

I recently reentered the theatre world (something that has been regrettably missing in my life since junior high). I was in a community production of Fiddler on the Roof this fall and I can’t even begin to describe how much I loved the experience. I’ve missed being in a show so much and now I’m firmly addicted again. Alas, the theatre bug hath bit me once again. This show was something special. It certainly helped that it’s one of my very favorite shows ever. I mean the material is just so rich and it was really great to be working with it again. But there was just a magic about the experience. The people were so great. We really became a family. I know that’s cliché but whatever. It is what it is. I truly and honestly love those people and not seeing them every day is killing me. There was just good energy.

Also, this show was directed by an AMAZING professional director (and Julliard grad, btw) from the Twin Cities. He had a real heart for this show and such a great vision of what he wanted it to be and it was such a great honor to be a part of making that vision a reality. He was so in depth and into every detail, every aspect of the show and from personal opinion and reviews I got, it paid off. I mean…just…WOW. He was fabulous. Also, our Tevye was a professional actor from the cities and I tell you what, that man was amazing. Like…if I could just pick his brain for a day…oh man. He was just so in it all the time. So in the zone. Like he…I don’t know. He was just so on and professional and talented. It was a very cool learning experience. I was so blessed to be able to work with these two incredibly talented men.

Of for the love of Pete, I’m getting all emotional. Gosh darn it.

Earlier tonight I attended a show on campus. It was a combination of magic, dance and comedy and it was so cool! It was basically the vision of one student who then collaborated with other amazingly talented students on campus. The show was called night games and it was basically about letting go and returning to that place of simplicity and wonder that is childhood. It was about remembering that there is magic in the world if we just stop and look around once and a while. Seriously it was so cool. The combination of dance and magic and sound and acting was so creative and well thought out. It just blows me away sometimes that people can come up with these ideas, and then even more so when they actually make them a reality. Usually, to be honest, magic kind of pisses me off because I want to figure it out and I can’t and it irks me to no end. But tonight I was really able to let go and sit in awe. Awe of the tricks of illusion, yes because they were superb and mind blowing. But it was more than that. It was awe of the talent, creativity and passion of my fellow students, some of whom I have had the pleasure of getting to know in my time here on campus. I don’t know, it just really reminded me of how beautiful the world is.

Finally (I know, long blog today), I went down to the basement of my building tonight to get Cheetos from the vending machine and as I was passing a couple of the rooms I noticed the artwork the girls living there had put up on the walls outside their rooms. It was a mixture of photography and chalk drawing they’d done and as I took a moment to really look at it I was again simply blown away. Seriously. There is so much beauty in the world and so many people with such great creative ways of capturing that beauty.

Eh. Reading that back it sounds a bit cheesy. But I honestly mean it. I have been surprised in such a pleasant way so many times over the past month or two at how amazing people can be. It’s been fun.

Also, on a side (but somewhat related) note; Matt Doyle is extraordinarily talented. He has such honesty in his voice when he sings. The emotion comes from a very real place and you can hear it when you listen to him. I think the most important part of any art form is honesty. So yeah…just sayin’. I’m a huge fan. :)

God Don't Make No Trash

So I’ve been listening to Bare almost obsessively for the past week. If you don’t know it, it’s a fabulous musical about two guys, Peter and Jason, who are carrying out a closeted romance at a Catholic boarding school. There’s way more to it than that, but that is the general baseline. It’s extraordinarily heartbreaking and beautiful and I recommend it to everybody.

Anyway, the show has really gotten me thinking. One of the central tensions of the show is obviously the catholic church's condemnation of homosexuality. Peter and Jason spend a good portion of the show trying to reconcile their feelings with their faith and looking for empathy from the church. In the end, the church fails them and the result is fatal. I won’t give away the ending, but let’s just say it’s not a happy one. We’ll leave it at that. I think the failure of the Catholic Church in this show mirrors the failure of the church as a whole. This isn’t about Catholicism or Evangelicalism or any denomination. It’s about the church—the body of Christ—and how deeply we’ve failed the world.

Our failure is that we have forgotten to love. We get so caught up in what makes us different, on the tiny details, on what is a sin and what isn’t that we lose sight of the bigger picture. Don’t get me wrong, I’m guilty of it too because, God knows, I love to argue about anything and everything. But I think we all need to take a step back and remember that this isn’t about doctrine or rules or traditions or who is right. It’s about people. But we forget that. We get so focused on arguing about pro choice vs. pro life that we fail to help with pregnancy prevention and improving options for people with babies they simply cannot keep. We get so caught up in insisting that homosexuality is a sin (actually I remain extraordinarily unconvinced but that is a different matter) that we forget that these are human beings with real feelings, fears and hurts. Whether it’s right or wrong, they don’t need condemnation, they need empathy! We’re playing with people’s lives here and if we fail to love them because of doctrine or tradition then their blood is on our hands.

Now I love to study theology and dig into all of these nitty gritty little things. I mean heck, I’m a theology major. But sometimes I think we need to step back from the academic side and remember that all these issues we bicker over aren’t scholastic issues. They’re human issues. It’s about real people with real emotions and struggles. Lives are so fragile. We need to be so much more careful about we say and do to people, especially in God’s name. After all, God is love. If the things we are doing are not done in love then we have no place pasting God’s name on them.

So that’s where I am right now. I think we can all work on loving better. Remember: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-3.

Nothing matters more than love. We need to start loving everyone, no matter who they are, where they come from, what they are going through or what they've done (or are still doing). Because in the words of one of Bare's characters, Sister Chantelle, "God don't make no trash".