The lights, the sounds, the food and cultures, the wealth, the grit--New York is like no place on Earth. I haven't been everywhere, and likely never will of course, but I've traveled enough in and out of the country to know. I once wrote in a novel of mine that people always say big cities aren't friendly. I think the opposite is true. I think it's the friendliest place to be. Where can you find yourself eating the largest piece of five-layer chocolate cake at midnight, followed by the thickest slice of pizza right after and watch life as if it were midday? That's what New York is: Alive. Throw in seeing the hottest musical of our day, and you know you're alive. You know you're seeing history being made. You know you're a part of it. You know, unequivocally, that America is changing. That the face of America and what is means to be American is changing. Has changed. Will be changed forever. That I, too, am changed. That's what Hamilton made me feel. God damn! Where to begin. Let's just start with the music. The hip-hop story-telling of something we've only looked at through dry and boring textbooks suddenly became the most poignant story ever told. To remember what speech and writing could once REALLY do. How one person with so much passion and drive could do. What thinking could do. Follow-through. Persistence. Without such people, nothing changes. Without such people who knows what this country would have been, if anything. It's fascinating to think about that. And it's also fascinating to think about the person who created it too, here and now, a story so long ago, filled with all the poignancy of today. Lin-Manuel Miranda's gift of writing! His gift of the written word! The blending of cultures and story-tellers, America has a new face. And it's both recognizable and unrecognizable at once. Oh! How exciting. This musical, then, to me, is all about writing, and the effect the power of words can have, then, now, always. What struck me most as a writer myself, and of course a romantic, watching Hamilton was Hamilton, himself, as a writer. He used words to incite change, every time. Essays, of course, speeches and discourse, of course, but the love letters. Damn. Those love letters to women. In a digital age world, we often hear people mourn the loss of letter writing, but we still have it. It's still so important. We write letters to one another every day in emails, texts, and messages. It's no different when someone writes us poetry or words or lines or paragraphs--they're letters. Isn't how we still fall in love with someone so often? Through their words? Love is attraction through language. It's cerebral. It's always been that way. Eliza's song states: I saved every letter you wrote me From the moment I read them I knew you were mine You said you were mine I thought you were mine Do you know what Angelica said when we saw your first letter arrive? She said: "Be careful with that one, love He will do what it takes to survive" You and your words flooded my senses Your sentences left me defenseless You built me palaces out of paragraphs And there I sat, thinking about all the love "letters" I've gotten, have gotten, will get, and each time I want to give up writing, I realize, without writing, without the construct and beauty of words, we are nothing. Even when we fall. Even when we sin. Even when we love more than one person at the same time. Even when our hearts are broken.
We can use words in any way we choose, but when we use them for the ultimate, to love, when someone knows how to write, and write well, we are convinced they are special. We are convinced that we are special, because they've made us so through language. It's what Shakespeare meant when he wrote: Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs. Everything about Hamilton is about language and words and their power. And I'm powerless now but to be changed forever.
2 Comments
7/12/2019 12:15:48
So glad you enjoyed Hamilton. I thought it powerful and wonderful, and I'm not even an American. It just makes to want to jump in the air and shout yes! Not many plays or musicals make you want to do that. I hope the break in NYC has revitalised you after a tiring and difficult period. I love the city. It's exuberant and alive. I lived in London for five years when I was young, and I found that exciting too, but it's not as lively as New York. I hope to return many more times if I am able. There's still a lot for me to see.
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DeeSee
7/12/2019 13:40:59
It is wonderful, exciting and at the same time amazing how Adrenalin affects us in so many ways! It is exhilarating to read and share your reactions to a plethora of stimuli in a location where there is an excess of it. NYC is indeed a hot bed of what is and will be happening like next place on earth. Walden Pond offers a counterpoint but if examined closely is every bit as pronominal. A soft sunrise above the ocean on a desolate beach, the crash of the heat on the crowded Pacific Ocean beach all fill the spectrometer of what can each experience. It is the struggle of the human mind to excrete that feeling in words; spoken, written, sung or dreamed. To feel overwhelmed, to feel the emotional risk of simply being alive and sharing in what the world has to offer often brings me to tears of joy!
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I LOVE to write and read. I particularly enjoy reading erotic romance that has tons of emotion in it. I hope you will ask me questions and share your favorite authors and novels. I welcome all feedback.
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