--THERE’S ONLY THIS.  THERE’S ONLY US.

 

…So I saw “Rent” tonight (technically last night, since it’s morning now.)

I’ve seen it several times before in the theater, as well as the film (which badly needed editing.) Yet it never quite moved me as it did this time.  I’m not sure why.  Maybe I caught more of the subtle symbolisms or maybe it’s the day we live in, but I cried more at this performance than I ever have during “Les Miserables,” which is saying something.
“Will I” (Lose My Dignity) is such a touching piece.  There are really only about a dozen words.  It’s very short and punctuated.  It’s so poignant and heart-wrenching, and the chorus raised every hair on my body.
Then there’s “I Should Tell You” and “Light My Candle” and “A Thousand Sweet Kisses,” which may well be the fifth most romantic song ever.
Anyway, I’m still spinning a bit.  Jonathan Larson was pretty brilliant.  It’s incredibly sad to think he died the day before his masterpiece premiered, and sadder yet to think of all he would have created had he simply lived an average number of years.

…It feels like I am being swept away, sucked down in the undertow of death, lately. 

I don’t want to be. 

“There is no future.  There is no past.”

…And, besides, it’s the weekend.  Who doesn’t love a weekend?

 

...Here are just a few things that make me pause.  Maybe they will you as well.

-“To me, being vulnerable is just another way of saying that one has nothing more to lose.” Bob Dylan

-“No death for you.  You are involved.” Weldon Kees

-“Until we lose ourselves, we’ll never find ourselves.” Henry Miller

-“I have becomes what I have always been and it has taken a lifetime, all of my own life, to reach this point where it is as if I know finally that I am alive and that I am here, right now.” Tobias Schneebaum

-“That we find a crystal or a poppy beautiful means that we are less alone, that we are more deeply inserted into existence than the course of a single life would lead us to believe.” John Berger

“Live life as if you are going to die tomorrow. Learn as if you are going to live forever.” Plato