Renewal

Friends,

I’ve been in New York City with Cathy and my sixteen year old “theater child” granddaughter. It’s not exactly a place to remind me of the messages of Holy Week, but I do have an appropriate message later below. 

Mostly I have been immersed in a prime capitalist center epitomized by one of my many new words this week, “merch,” as in merchandise, or “goods that can be bought, sold, or traded." Yes, there are room after room of amazing art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, beautiful parks, and the artistry of the world of theater that appears bigger than life under all the  bright lights and dazzling color of the stage. And I am continually struck by the limitless variety of the human species and the limitless samplings of food style. And then, of course, are the neck gyrations necessary to take in the immense buildings that define the structure of NYC. 

But behind all this life is the culture of commodification - merch - and the pervasive exchange of money and goods that doesn’t exactly define American culture, but NYC epitomizes an encapsulated version of a secular America in its most concentrated form. The impact of it all is becomes a buying and selling spirit that sets a more rapid pulsating pace of life commensurate with the hustle of it all.

I did find, however, a beautiful link between my NYC immersion and the Easter message of hope and resurrection when we attended a beautiful musical called Hadestown.  I loved the sets, the talented musicians and vocalists, but I was quite unexpectedly taken by the theme of a not-too-subtle commentary on contemporary capitalist society. The plot is based on the Greek myth of Persephone and Hades, a married couple representing a power of evil over the world (Hades) and the eternal promise of resurrected life in the person of of Hades' wife, Persephone, who is released each year from Hades’ control to bring springtime ,flowers and life back to the mortal world. The immediate drama of the play is that a poor girl named Eurydice was sadly enticed to live with Hades, and a young, naive boy named Orpheus rescues her by singing his winsome love song that even moves Hades to be loving and bringing him closer to his wife. In recognition of his gift of love to Hades Orpheus is allowed to lead Eurydice back to freedom in what is to be a perilous journey. But there is a condition: Orpheus must trust Eurydice to follow and cannot look back to see if she is still there or she will be reclaimed by Hades. He does look back (sigh!) and one takeaway is that heroic endeavors are less difficult than trusting in love,  and trusting in the love is necessary to face the unknown and lead us back to wholeness and freedom. The last message of the play is that it is an old story that must be told and retold of the challenge to allow love to conquer fear and captivity. (Are you still with me????) (You can read a more complete summary of Hadestown at the site below.)

Now the Easter part…The final takeaway form the play is that, despite the hold that “Hadestown" has on us, love can rescue us if we have the faith to believe it is possible to endure the travail of change necessary to struggle and win our freedom. And I think that is also the primary lesson of the Easter celebration: Jesus' sacrificial love represents the promise of freedom from the “Hadesdown" of all in life that detracts us from the inclusive gift that love and grace offers if we are willing to follow that road to freedom. And it is, indeed, a very old story that needs to be told over and over again with the promise of resurrection from our defeats and faults.

In conclusion, it is difficult during this tumultuous time not to also make a connection with the promise of hope that is forever there for us as the Easter commemoration of resurrection celebrates.

Peace,
Tom

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadestown