The Broadway musical “RENT” is a story about a group of young artists in New York City’s East Village struggling with life’s issues. They are all poor. Some are infected with AIDS and dying, others are gay or have drug problems. They are pretty much screwed up. Despite all of this at the end of the movie version I found myself actually wanting to be one of them! Why? That would be a fair question. The answer is that because in spite of all of their issues, illnesses, vices and differences they have one thing in common. They understand love. They love one another unconditionally as friends and more importantly as human beings. What a novel idea.
One of the songs in the musical asks this question: of the 525,600 minutes that pass in a year, how do you measure the year? Do you measure it in daylights, moonlights, midnights, cups of coffee? How about measuring it in love. So how about love? I would be embarrassed to break my year down and compare how many minutes I openly spend loving other people against how many I spend talking about other people or groups of people. How many times do we talk about the ‘other political party’, the ‘other countries that can’t get their crap together’, the ‘other religions’, the ‘other basically anyone who doesn’t have the same beliefs and philosophies of our own’? But do we ever really stop and think that those other groups are actually made up of PEOPLE; people with feelings, thoughts and desires of their own. We think of these groups as objects and not as people. An example, you hear often of the genocide that is going on in Darfur. “Man, they just can’t get it together over there.” Really? Those that ‘just can’t get it together’ are forced out of their homes, beaten, raped, brainwashed and if they are lucky land in a refugee camp where they get barely enough food and water to live. There is no choice in it for them. I would venture to guess that many of the people there don’t actually want to live that way. But to us they are just people who can’t get their crap together. Shouldn’t it be up to us that can help, to help instead of just talking about how messed up they are? After all, it wasn’t that long ago we were a country that couldn’t get it together. Over half a million Americans died during a four year war…with ourselves. Less than that have died in Darfur in almost five years.
I think its time we stopped categorizing ourselves into groups and think of ourselves and one another as people. Not Democrats or Republicans (or Independents), not East Nashvillians or suburbanites, not Americans or people from other countries, not law abiding citizens or criminals, not Christians or Muslims. People, just people. The world is made up of people. Some end up being presidents, some drug addicts, some end up kidnapped and forced into the sex trafficking rings, and some never have to work a day in their lives. It doesn’t matter who, what or where, all of us deserve respect and more importantly love.
PS – the touring production of “RENT” will be coming through Nashville in March and after 12 years will be performing their last show on Broadway this summer.
PS2 - if you haven't already seen it here is a video of Liam rolling over for the first time last weekend. You will probably have to copy and paste it into your browser. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1059191198446673972&pr=goog-sl
