The first thing this morning, I opened my email. And there, at 5 a.m., was a video sent from a friend. It was the performance of “America” from West Side Story.
Initially, it had me up and moving and filled with the music. Then. It brought up so many different thoughts.
It carried me, with a whirl and a rush, to the memories from my youth. This was… (and still is) one of my all-time favorite movies. Although. I have never seen it on Broadway, regrettably.
But as a kid, my sister and I used to “play” West Side Story all the time. The album… sure. We played that. Over and over and over again. We would sing like crazy with all those songs.
Yet, what I’m really talking about is us “playing out” the movie. We were, always, the Sharks. Every time. Julie was always Bernardo. And I was always Pepe. I loved that guy. He was the epitome of cool. I wanted to be just like Pepe.
We would have to fight imaginary Jets, simply because she and I always wanted to be the Sharks. We were insistent on this. So we’d rumble against the mean Jets guys led by Riff, and Ice, and Action, and Baby John. Always the rumble.
Anyway, there are some relevant messages in that story. Ones fitting for today, if you ask me.
Later in the day, I had another discussion with someone about politics, and the current predicament our country faces.
The biggest part of it, to the core, comes down to this. It is all very complicated. We are teetering on the balance of making right decisions.
You see, there are no easy answers. So we teeter up there… on that thin edge.
The thing I hope more than anything, is that aren’t driven to rumble.
In fact.
I think we should just put the album on…. and dance.