Copyrights reserved by the author. If you are in doubt, please click on 'Copyrights' and read the details.Bringing back memories of the future By J. G. Fabiano The other day my wife and I enjoyed a great show in Boston called, "Movin’ Out". The musical surrounds Billy Joel songs. In fact, the show had no dialogue. The stage was broken up horizontally with the band playing above the characters that danced their way through the lyrics. It was quite exceptional in that I had never seen anything quite like it plus it stirred up memories of times-gone-by.What made this experience even more exceptional was who surrounded me during the performance. At the high school where I teach I am also the advisor for a program called, "Project Search". This gifted and talented activity has me take 25 very talented seniors to the University of New Hampshire twice a month to participate in lecture series and panels concerned with topics they will be confronted with after they leave High School. Toward the end of the year we take these students to enjoy a show and some dinner in Boston. Since there are 12 other school participating in this program I found myself surrounded by almost 200 gifted and talented young men and women who would probably become some of the leaders of our future. The musical starts out in the 1960’s and the man who plays the piano man above sings Billy Joel classics that include, "It’s still Rock and Roll to Me" and "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant". During the songs the dancers below portray the king and queen of the prom and how sweethearts emerge from High School hoping to become the couples of the future but, back then, like today, there is a war, which takes men away from their home, leaving their dreams behind. At the beginning of the performance I was looking for some time to forget the realities of the present and go into a fantasy world of fun and nothingness. My wife and I both soon found out this play meant much more than that and the play would become a reminder that the past is not that far away from the future. Songs like, "We didn’t start the fire" and "Angry young men" displayed the emotional times of our last war. It showed how young men of that era thought they were helping their nation only to discover they were being placed in harms way for reasons no one could clearly explain. The theme of this musical did not stop there as it then evolved into the times after the war where the survivors of this war came home and were pitted against each other and the people they were trying to protect. Songs like, "Captain Jack" and "Innocent man" made the dancers beneath the band act out how the broken dreams of these innocent children left them marooned on a reality they couldn’t understand. Throughout the show I kept on looking at the faces of my students who surrounded me. Many were intense not quite understanding what the play was trying to demonstrate but still touched by the loss and frustrations of the characters before them. On one occasion I watched a young woman start to cry when it was obvious one of the primary characters had been killed in the war. I later found out this young woman was going with a graduate of our High School and had been in Iraq for the past 6 months. I tried to turn around to console her by smiling but the hurt she felt was a bit too deep to be lessoned by anything I could ever think of. Looking past this student I watched the smiling faces of children, who were obviously enjoying the day, be replaced by stern faces of young men and women who clearly understood that what they were viewing from the past was quickly becoming what they would all face in their near futures. During intermission I tried to talk with all of my students and get an idea of what they thought about the show. All were enjoying it but some were angry about what the musical was attempting to portray. One young man told me in no unnecessary terms that this play was obviously produced by liberal Democrats who were attempting to force their President from power by portraying our present war as being illegal and unnecessary. He was proud of what his country was doing on the world stage and couldn’t understand how anyone would not support what was happening and the troops that were there making it happen. I did not argue with these students. I just listened and respected their ideas and feelings. For they were the future. A future that would hopefully take care of me. I talked to others who loved the music and the dancing and they were a bit upset about what the show meant because they knew their futures were directly related to what was going on in their worlds today. One young woman asked if I was part of the times the play represented. I told her yes. She then asked if it was true. I told her I thought so but it was important she make that decision for herself. She just smiled and went back to talk to her friends. The second act began with everyone at his or her seats but the difference between the first and second acts was that no one was talking. It was obvious that everyone was waiting to see how the musical would turn their emotions to what it was trying to say. Songs like, "Pressure" and "Goodnight Saigon" made the second act more emotional than the first. I again observed my students studying what was being shown before them, even the young man who told me about the liberal Democrats concentrated on what he thought were liberal lies in front of him. During the second act my mind wandered off to a couple of days ago when one of my ex-students visited me in my classroom. I was proud to see him come in because he was wearing a United States Marine dress uniform. I smiled when he entered and stopped everything I was doing because I wanted to make sure he clearly understood how proud I was of him. In fact, the students in my class also stopped what they were doing to observe what many of them hoped they would become. He looked so strong and much taller than I could remember. I knew him since he was in High School. He wasn’t the best of students but always respected his adults and his peers. He always told me he wanted to be a Marine and I told him that I was proud he succeeded in becoming what he always thought he would be. I remember shaking his hand, which was strong and dry. I also remember him telling me he was heading West and would soon be part of the coalition forces in Iraq. In fact, he told me he couldn’t wait. As the musical evolved into songs that included, "River of dreams", Keeping the faith", and "Only the good die young" I felt a tear hit my cheek. It wasn’t one of sadness, it was an expression of an emotion that I feared for this Marine’s future. It was a fear that, if something terrible was to happen, I had no clue as to how I would handle it. To my surprise I felt the hand of the young woman who was earlier crying about her fear for her young soldier. She told me she understood. I just wish I did. The show ended with the songs, "I’ve loved these days" and a reprise of the opening song, "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant". We left the theater, all 200 of us, a bit quieter then when we arrived. The conversations included a love of Billy Joel’s music and a bit of fear for what it represented. As my wife and I sat down in the bus all I could do was tell her this show brought back memories of the future. She looked oddly at me but I know she understood exactly what I was trying to say. The End
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