The Musicals that Made Me
Music was interwoven into the fabric of my life growing up. Mom often conscripted me into various singing groups and dancing lessons. And never mind how she dreamed of her seven daughters forming some kind of Osmond-type ensemble while wearing our infamous “rainbow dresses.”
Continuing on my nostalgic trend, I find myself revisiting moments from my past. Times when I absorbed life lessons at a rapid rate, chiseling away at the marble of my personality, deciding which traits and values will stay and which will go.
Some of my most important life lessons have come from musicals. In fact, my three favorite movies as a child all happen to be musicals: Annie, West Side Story, and The Sound of Music.
The latter has a particularly special place in my heart. When I was seven, I played Gretl, the youngest von Trapp child, in a high school community production of The Sound of Music. And in a fun turn of events, my mom played a nun. The whole experience changed my life in profound ways.
Kids don’t generally think about themes and messages, but they weave their way into our value systems somehow, and that’s the point of good storytelling.
From Annie, I learned that being an orphan was full of sorrow and hard knocks, but it could make you scrappy and sharp-witted, which could take you far in life.
(It also made for some wild imaginative games, didn't it, Frister? “Punjab, save me!”)
From West Side Story (a modern-day Romeo and Juliet) I learned that when two gangs fight for the same piece of street, everybody loses.
My favorite character was Anita. To this day, I marvel at Rita Moreno’s performance as well as that iconic purple dress. (To my lament, I still haven’t found a pastiche for myself.)
When my girl, Anita, got assaulted by those boys in Doc’s Drugstore and were about to presumably gang rape her, I watched her deliver one of the most powerful lines I had ever witnessed.
“DON’T. YOU. TOUCH. ME.”
That look of pure rage on her face. I felt that in my bones.
In light of recent events, keep in mind that it often only takes one person to stop the harm. Doc intervened, but not physically. He only demanded they answer for what they were doing, and that was enough.
From The Sound of Music, I learned that music and singing have the power to change lives and soften hearts. Maria’s character taught me that God’s will for your life can suddenly change and turn your whole world upside down.
“How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?” is a cheeky song by the nuns, but Maria’s disposition is so lovable, quirky, and pure that the audience knows she isn’t a problem at all. She is simply misplaced in the abbey, trying to exist in a space too confined for her: one that wouldn’t bring her talents to fruition. One that couldn’t bless her life in the way that the captain and the children could.
I learned that Edelweiss is a simple white flower, but it symbolizes Georg’s love for his homeland. As things change and evil forces encroach, he tries to cling to the country that raised him, but it’s gone, and the only safe place for these sentiments is in his heart. Tears well up every time I hear it.
Tears well up for me and the anger rages when I think about the power structures in place and the injustices happening in my own homeland as I type these words. Families are being separated and thrown into concentration camps without due process. Some are being deported to countries not their own.
We were promised they would only go after “the worst of the worst criminals,” but that’s not what’s happening. A vast majority have no criminal record and they are being racially profiled.
Once in the system, they are cut off from family, often from legal assistance, and even necessary healthcare and medications.
Oh, and EVEN "THE WORST OF THE WORST" DESERVE FAIR TREATMENT.
If you think what ICE is doing is right and just, read the reports coming out of The Marshall Project, and tell me if you’d want that kind of “justice” for yourself or your loved ones.
This version of immigration enforcement is hellish and needs to be dismantled. There’s
· excessive force in arrests
· racism and scapegoating immigrants
· ICE patrolling streets and performing raids
· inhumane conditions at detention centers
· the Trump administration disbanding oversight organizations
· lack of accountability or investigation of deaths in ICE custody
The cruelty is the point. The racism is the point. All these things have been amped up severely since this administration took office. In literally every authoritarian playbook, a certain class of people is vilified. Trump found his. This is a test of humanity, and ICE is failing that test.
The county I love is better than this, and I pray for an end to the cruelty.
If you've made it this far, thank you.
Enjoy these photos from The Sound of Music as put on by Pleasant Grove High School. I had no pictorial evidence of me even being in that play until I went on a search and the weather gods raised their sails for me again, and I found a whole scrapbook.
I present to you little Shelli, smartly dressed in her crisp, standard-issue von Trapp sailor uniform, fighting fascism through song and dance. I continue to do so in any way I can. This is the hill I will die on. Hope keeps me going. This is my Edelweiss.
Comments