whats in the way is the way
in which we muse on the nature of impediments, say happy rosh hashanah, and of course provide links for upcoming shows
hey hartlist,
I can’t remember where I heard it first (Brene Brown?) and don’t know who originally said it, but it’s stayed with me.
What’s IN the way… IS the way.
A quick google search reveals a very angelic looking book with that title by someone named Mary O’Malley, so, maybe her? I find myself thinking about this often; the idea that the very thing you think is blocking your path MIGHT actually be a clue, a tool, even a doorway. Remember that moment in ‘Labyrinth’ where Jennifer Connolly THINKs she’s looking at a solid brick wall but discovers it’s an optical illusion and actually it’s TWO different ways in? ( Just me?) (Related: “Labyrinth” is suddenly available on Netflix, who knows why, maybe they’ve been watching The Chrysalis.*) In the 12-step world, it’s often said that if you want to know godorwhatever’s will for you, then “when you hit a wall, go left”.
This SUNDAY 4PMEDT: THE CHRYSALIS 52: MY CONDITION, songs and text about obstacles, impediments, and universe-mandated left turns. On YT and FB until I decide I’m sick of paying streamyard to let me do both …
WITWITW is a compelling thought for me because it’s not just about redirection, or ‘blessings in disguise’, but the idea that the problem actually contains the solution and can be used against itself. Anyway, food for thought.
speaking of obstacles: one more chance TOMORROW 9/10 at 730EDT to see the heroically assembled Manhattan School of Music covid-era moviefilm zoom of the musical IRON JOHN:an american ghost story .
Would we all have preferred to stage the show in a theatre? OF COURSE (see earlier newsletter). Would it have been nice to have Rosh Hashanah as before at my aunt’s beautiful home? SURE. Do Jacinth and I now have some beautiful film clips of our musical for a press kit that we didn’t have to pay for? AMEN. And has our family gotten brilliant at pot-luck, stage-setting, let’s say site-specific holiday feasts that are communal and creative and have brought us closer together? HAPPY ROSH HASHANAH LOOK AT THE BEAUTIFUL SIGN WE MADE!
Speaking of obstacles, I feel like I might have written three newsletters in a row making the same point? Eep. But maybe I need to keep reminding myself. Also, it appears I still can’t write a newsletter in less than 45 minutes, and I need to go, to get ready for, oh, my first callback in two years. (Doesn’t matter what it’s for, not the point.) The point is I submitted myself on tape to get it, a thing that used to paralyze me with discomfort to the point of total avoidance. And this time it was as easy as falling off a log, and I sang into my phone as if there were an audience there and I do it all the time, because, well, now I do. Because for a year it was the only option. Though I expect if you all had not been there, I would have done it … less. THANK YOU for listening, watching, and reading. See you Sunday.
love
rebecca
* it is not a ‘good’ movie.