Monday Musing, 12/18/18

Hello Apprentices--​

A day late. So this may be more a Tuesday Trance than a Monday Musing. But I thank you in advance for your grace upon my tardiness. Tardy Tuesday Trance.

Some thoughts on the season, as I won’t presume to intrude upon your Eve next Monday.

I recall vividly believing so deeply in Santa Claus. And the Tooth Fairy. My father got me but GOOD with a Tooth Fairy story. He presented me with a Chinese checkers set (???) after a particularly painful tooth loss. He claimed that the Tooth Fairy was behind him in the department store checkout line, and insisted he bring this board game back to me. Boy howdy did I buy it. 

My father also teamed up with some extended fam one year to convince both my brother and myself that Santa had put together a sweet RC racetrack for us. I am not too proud to admit that I may have squealed. We played on that thing for YEARS, long past the time when we both knew it had been dad and Uncle Gary putting that track together in the back room.

To come around to the first attachment, by G.K. Chesterton… is Santa a fairy tale? Even deeper, could we describe any of the various religious stories and traditions surrounding these holidays “fairy tales”? And does it matter if they are? Or aren’t? Because while dragons may not be pulling Santa’s sleigh (although how cool would THAT be??), the thread that connects all of the stories and songs and traditions at this time of year—at least to my mind—seems to be kindness. Grace. Gratitude. A reminder that the feelings and needs of others are just as vital and important as yours and mine. And is this not also the core of our theatrical enterprise… to put the catharsis of the audience above our own? It’s not surprising that theatre has for millennia been intimately tied to sacred rites and religious celebration, or that so many buildings that once were churches are repurposed as theaters.

We KNOW that dragons exist. Some of you may be battling them right now, as this season and its pressures can cause anxiety and isolation just as easily as joy and community. But as artists and as those who serve an audience, we know that those dragons are beatable. Maybe not easily. Maybe not with glory. But beatable nonetheless.

The second attachment… hearkening back to kindness. Grace. Gratitude. I’ve got two Secret Santa gifts on my desk right now, both of them insanely thoughtful. I can only imagine the glee this person took in nailing these gifts, and I hope they can imagine my chuckles and my sense of, even just a little bit, being KNOWN.

Take every opportunity to EXUDE GRATITUDE.

Because we are all inexplicably and unavoidably in this together.

Have a wonderful, warming, gratitude-infused holiday and New Year.