DTC Blog

My mother-in-law remarried Saturday. It had been about a year since her late husband passed away. Her husband's name is John. I met one of John's sons and his sister for the first time on Thursday. By Sunday, when we had officially become family, it was as if we had known each other all our lives. Some take great pains to specify which people are family and which are friends. However. in the grand sceme of things, family should be a subset of friends, not a mutually exclusive group of people. Remember, we have control over who we choose to be our friends. However, our family is chosen for us. Make sure you CHOOSE to make your pre-selected family into the core of your group of friends.

Many people will look back on the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and remember Michael Phelps. The most decorated Olympian in history. Not only more career gold medals than anyone else alive but also the most gold medals in a single olympic games than anyone else. However, look at his races this year. He was in 8 races, three of which were relay races. In fact, how appropriate it was to Michael Phelps' humilty on the interview camera that his last race, and the one that put him past Mark Spitz as the one who has received the most gold medals in a single games, was the medley relay...he was reliant on three other swimmers to win that race. In fact, a review of the video would show that the US team was not in the lead when Michael got out of the water after his leg of the race.

Many times in theatre we speak of developing an ensemble. As a director, I talk about the fact that no one person can create a quality theatrical production...you need costumes, lights, sound, sets, direction and acting to create a high-caliber production.

This same principle is true in life. How many times can you accomplish something truly great completely on your own...even Michael Phelps' individual gold medals were aided by his coach throughout the years. We need each other to continue our success journey.

On my other blog (www.carrlanevpaschool.org/nucleusblog), I wrote the other day about my reflections about the 1988 Olympics and my perceptions of it. Today, I would like to look at a deeper response. I've been watching the Olympics for a long time now (since at least 1988...I also remember some from the Los Angeles games in 1984) and I've noticed another change. In Olympics past, when they would get to the medal ceremonies and play the national anthem, there was a definite difference between the emotional and expression responses from those athletes representing the United States and all the other countries. When "The Star Spangled Banner" was played, the US athletes would often times tear up (men and women) and most of them were singing the words as the melody was being played. Athletes from other countries, on the other hand, were most often very stoic and unemotional. They rarely sang along and sometimes appeared to feel almost a dislike toward their country. This year (so far at least) seems different. Most athletes are truly proud to be representing their country...they become somewhat emotional at the raising of their flag and the playing of their national anthem. Could this be a natural outgrowth of the expansion of democratic states and the reduction in Communist controlled states? Could it be that when governments give individuals more freedom and less government intervention, that they actually become more supportive of what intervention that government does provide? That sounds like the type of country intended by the framers of our constitution.

I was at an opening-day rally for my school district today. They had a district employee (I'm not sure if it was a teacher, administrator or other staff) sing "The Star Spangled Banner." He did a wonderful job. However, there was more response in the form of applause during the song when he would hit the "high notes" than there was at the end for what the song represents. How long has it been since you've really paid attention to the words of our National Anthem?

"And the rockets red glare.
The bombs bursting in air.
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there.
O, say, does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave."

Think about those words next time you watch the US athletes celebrating their Gold Medals. Then also remember these words by French writer Alexis de Tocqueville as you think about our freedoms: "America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great!" (http://www.higherpraise.com/illustrations/america.htm)

We recently finished our production of A Christmas Carol with Destination Theatre Company. As we were nearing production week, I was having a conversation with one of the crew members. He had not been in the rehearsals from the beginning and had only attended his first rehearsal a couple days earlier. He had been there for the opening scenes and one of Ebenezer Scrooge's line, in response to a solicitor's comments that "Some [people who are badly off] cannot go to [the union workhouses or prisons] and some would rather die," is "Well, if they should rather die, then they best be on with it and decrease the surplus population." The crew member's comment was that Scrooge seemed like some kind of communist. Later in the play, the teenage version of Ebenezer Scrooge tells his fiance, Belle, that he cannot trust anyone but himself. It occurred to me that there are some people like that walking around today too. Maybe they've been hurt by someone they trusted (like Scrooge was hurt by his father who sent him off to an apprenticeship rather than allowing him to stay at home) and so they have decided that they cannot trust in anyone except themselves. I once read a statement in a book that the only way to ensure our own health and security is to ensure the health and security of other too. If I am having heart problems, I will have to trust in the knowledge and skills of a trained physician to make me better. If I am in danger from a criminal or a fire, I will have to put my trust into the hands of someone trained to deal with those situations. Ultimately, I place my complete trust in God to protect me and keep me healthy. It is through his power that I have overcome many situations in the past and it is through his strength that I will overcome any other situations that come my way in the future.