How to lift the gloom on this Tuesday morning? The release of Black Panther did a lot of good, breaking box office records while raising heart rates and social-political consciousness. And I’m glued to the tube watching the Olympics bring the nations of the world together striving for excellence. I get so moved by how Olympians represent the great feats of being human with admiration and praise for their fellow competitors and each other from all over the planet. Escapism with a ginormous dose of hope for all of us. Real promise.
As we’re all dealing with the lives lost on Valentine’s Day, we are galvanized by the voices of the teenagers who survived the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre. It is the students who rise and fight and lead us to “Never Again!”
Aurora’s own teenagers rose up, survivors in their own right, to hit the dance floor in a wildly successful fund raiser for The Simply Destinee Youth Center, Thursday night. There we were, the day after this national tragedy, applauding and cheering so loud and hard for these kids’ progress and achievement! The dancing was so much fun! Suicide awareness and prevention has taken on promising development under the dedicated stewardship of Marty Luna and his sister, Liza Oliva. What music and dance education can do for the betterment of these children who have lived with the danger of despair is really something to behold. Everyone was filled with grace and gratitude; full of life and hope!
The arts heal.
I caught the Sunday evening performance of Paramount’s Cabaret, first time since it opened a week ago. Seeing it with fresh eyes stunned by its power and artfulness, renewed, refreshed and devastating. Katie Spelman, again, someone so young, meets the challenge of delivering on expectation, beyond expectation. As exhilarating and entertaining as it is, it dawns on me what the tragedy is here. No one dies by the end of Cabaret. Everything dies. It is a story of the prelude to, what Director Spelman describes as, “a seismic shift in our global history.”
Change is needed and it is happening.
We can see it in a movie, a fundraiser saving kids’ lives, a trip to the theatre, and in the raised voices of compassion and outrage from the teenage survivors in Parkland, Florida.
God bless us and keep us safe. Protect us and have mercy on us.
Love & thanks,
Jim
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