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THE MUSIC MAKERS

I ventured out into the storm last night and headed to Carnegie for Stage 62's production of SWEENEY TODD. Parking is a challenge there and I grabbed my umbrella for a five block walk to the theater...just as I began to open it the lightning and thunder made me rethink my evening...and I walked in the rain. The auditorium was filling up as I arrived, and I sat back for what turned out to be a great evening of musical theater. I have several friends who were involved in the show, directing, conducting the surprisingly large orchestra, playing an instrument or in the cast. The show got great reviews and I understand why. I was amazed at the acting and vocal talent...as good as I've seen anywhere. A heck of a lot of bang for twelve bucks.

Since I had a real aching to "get off the farm" last night, I soaked in a lot more than the desperately needed rain. Three of the guys I knew who were involved with the show have also sung or continue to sing with  our men's choir. All three also teach music, direct the marching band or choral groups. The director is a multi talented young guy who makes the high school plays and players really come to life. Music is a big part of their lives.

I've sung with church choirs since I was ten years old...with my "group voice", and played the organ ( a great imposter ) for years since the eighth grade. The only acting I ever did was when  I had to lip-sink a Louis Prima routine...even though I didn't even know who he was as I danced around to " I've grown accustomed to her face", or when I was hauled off in a van from my all boys high school to a girls reform school to be in a one act play.

I'm in awe of the people who surround themselves with music...from a concert pianist to my beloved nephew who can dance and sing his way into your heart, to the people who teach little kids to sing, to the people who spend long hours on hot days rehearsing and rehearsing. I hope they know that wanna-be's like me truly appreciate the beauty and talent that they create...out of thin air. To all of you...your audience is deeply grateful.

DOING NOTHING

So we have the most unpopular congress in history. The last poll I saw had them at a seven percent approval rating...which is pretty much the same as Satan's. Not that I can prove that last one, but after all he does have a cute tail. When Mitch McConnell announced that he would lead his party with the single goal of making Barrack Obama a one term president, the writing was on the wall....almost four years ago. The right wing of the Republican party quickly rallied around that goal, and there's no way that their constant filibusters were good for this country. When they fought to the very last minute to stop the country from paying it's bills, they caused considerable damage to the whole nation.

The Republican party that my family belonged to for most of our lives is long gone. When I was younger I voted for both democrats and republicans, making my choice according to their policies and their records, and even today I try to vote for the best candidate, not for the party. While there are certainly some whacko democrats, the republican party is loaded with them. People like Michelle Bachmann...Christine O'Donnell ( "I am not a witch")...Rick Santorum..John Boener...Dick Cheney...Rumsfiled...Wolfowitz...Pearl...

Governor Corbett....Governor Ultra-sound.

Rick Perry...(would send troops back to Iraq)...Sarah Palin (who thought Iraq was responsible for 9-11). I'm sure I'm missing some.

Last night there was a ray of hope with the tax bill...followed by a news

segment about Corbett cutting the General Assistance program that gives sick people about 200.00 a month while they're temporarily unable to work because of an injury...or waiting for total disability payments. His gas drilling czar who can overturn any communities laws about drilling comes from the oil industry.

I thought congress represented us? I guess part of the problem is that we don't tell them what we want and what we don't want. Until we find our voice and take the five minutes to call our "representative" they'll just continue to do what's best for THEM not for US. We all think that our one voice doesn't matter, but if everyone who's reading this now would call, write, or send an email to their own representative....someone would notice...and maybe something would change. How's about banning assault rifles...one call versus the NRA...( the MOST powerful lobby in Congress)...might be ignored...

hundreds and thousands might be another story. Saint Francis said that it's better to light one little candle that to simply curse the darkness. Light your candle.

TEACHING A BULLY A LESSON

Every picture I have of our neighborhood kids growing up shows Beecher Kirby with a rope hanging from his waste. I guess he qualified as a bully back then...and he was never really a part of our little group...I guess because Hop Scotch and plays about miracles and dwarfs just didn't interest him very much. Part of me thought he was kinda cool, since he had a convertible and an air compressor.( My friend Susan and I had plans to one day build a blimp that we could ride in.) Most of the time Beecher was just mean and annoying however, and even though he hung out with the older guys like Tommy whom I've mentioned before (the one who would crawl out of his bedroom window and sit on the roof in his underpants smoking cigarettes), and Mike Rome who drove a corvette and was the handsomest guy I'd ever seen up to that point, Beecher picked on us. One day when the girls and I had been pushed to the point of a near nervous breakdown  by him repeatedly squirting away our hop scotch game with a hose, we decided to beat him up.

Nancy and Loretta  who were twins, ten year olds who were usually nice little girls and frequent extras in one of our garage extravaganzas, suggested that we form a circle around Beecher and on the count of three we'd all charge him and teach him a lesson. First we all sat around chewing on blades of grass and acting nonchalant until one of the twins said the secret word and we all formed a very menacing circle....(well, as menacing a circle as we could muster with about six ten year old girls, me, and my friend Bill who might have been a turncoat all along). A faintly whispered one two three, and wham! Into the circle I leaped....alone. The girls and the turncoat all ran away screaming and Beecher rolled me around a few times and went home laughing. So much for his "lesson". I think I learned one.

Having been abandoned by all of my cohorts, I of course had to punish them.

I immediately canceled the afternoon rehearsals for " The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima", and announced that a new Blessed Mother would be replacing Susan. To this day...fifty years later, she still insists that I coveted that role from the very beginning, and that the failed coup against Beecher was nothing more than a smokescreen. I still beg to differ.

I don't know whatever became of Beecher. I still imagine that he goes to drive- ins with wild looking girls in his convertible and smells like an ash tray.

His name is so unusual that I worry a little bit that he'll read something like this and track me down and try to beat me up all over again. This time I'm going to add my mother and cousins Eleanor and Judy to the circle..THEN we'll see what happens to Beecher Kirby.

PUNISHING THE WRONG PEOPLE

I can't seem to stop comparing the Penn State abuse scandal to the pedophilia horrors that plagued and continue to plague my Catholic Church.

Once again, young boys were victimized by someone they knew and trusted, and once again the perpetrator was the Goliath of a huge and intimidating organization. While the Church had a twisted pattern of simply transferring the guilty person to a new venue, Jerry Sandusky was left to pursue his prey until someone finally took action and the criminal activity was stopped. When some of the victims in the church scandal began to speak...many weren't believed, and many others never saw their perpetrators punished, as the evil moved to fresh hunting grounds.

When Cardinal Law in Boston had exhausted his options after years and years of inaction involving priests in his jurisdiction, he was sent to a new cushy assignment in Rome. At least everyone involved at Penn State is likely to suffer the consequences of his or her inaction. The similarities to the Catholic Church stop there.

I understand the fines...which are probably about what a year of football revenues amount to, and I understand the depth of the investigation and fair trial of anyone who was complicit, but ending the careers of many of the team members seems like punishing the congregation in the pews for what their priest did to the kids. The attempt to change history by erasing past victories seems a little like annulling any marriages or other sacraments performed while Father X was running the parish. Shaming the football team for what the coaches did or didn't do would be like making the Rosary Society and the Knights of Columbus wear scarlet letters to Mass.

Punish the culprits...take the pound of flesh, but remember not to give the whole class detention because little Joey didn't finish his seatwork. The good parishioners and priests who were also tainted by scandals all over the world will suffer enough for sins they didn't commit, and Penn State students and alumni have already had their college experience tarnished. There doesn't seem to be much mercy being dolled out for the innocent bystanders at State College this week.

HURTING KIDS AGAIN

    I don't really know doots about sports...maybe that was evident the day my sister in law and niece asked me to drop them off for a Pirates game and I pulled up to the wrong stadium...relieved that there was so little traffic.  I still remember the way they both looked at me...in spite of the fact that I knew how much they loved me.  I'd rather go to another Wayne Newton concert than sit freezing at a football game or roasting at a baseball game.  My other half...Mr Big Shot was riding to a sports event in Philadelphia with clients when he had to whisper to me on his cell phone..."quick...what sport do the Lakers play...I'm on my way to a game..". That one was easy...I told him I was pretty sure that it was football.

   For the life of me I can't understand the punishment for Penn State handed down this morning.  These guys on the football team didn't do anything wrong...did they?  There are certainly guilty people here...and quite a few of them...and they ought to be punished for sure.  Anybody who hurts a kid, and anyone who knows about it and doesn't do anything about it ought to be locked up.  These kids who play football at Penn State are being punished...hurt...for sins they neither committed nor had any knowledge of.  This would be a whole different issue if the team members had been involved in the crimes...but they were not.  Every one who loves Penn State...and football is also being made to suffer...and even though I'm not at all interested in the sport, and have no ties to Penn State...(HAIL TO DUQUESNE)....I think this punishment is misdirected.  It would make much more sense to me to keep digging deeper into any cowardly adult who stood by while kids were being hurt, but hurting a whole lot more kids makes no sense at all.

HEARTBREAK IN COLORADO

Once again I have my morning coffee with tears in my eyes. It's a rainy and foggy morning, and the "Breaking News" is once again from Colorado. Such a gorgeous state where even the official flower the "Columbine" no longer has the same meaning. For the next few days the news will be of funerals, broken lives and dreams, and questions about motives and warnings. "The Dark Knight Rises" has been the talk of the town lately, having been filmed in our city, and hyped all over the country with it's midnight premiers. Now just as that beautiful little state flower has had it's innocent image tarnished, the movie will also forever be tainted with tragedy.

Lots of us have been anxious to see the film...tempted to head out for a midnight adventure that is such a fun part of the magic of movies, and such a nice escape from most nights with the DVR or Netflix. We'll still go to the movies, critique the story, and point out the landmarks we grew up with, and probably try unsuccessfully to avoid thinking about what happened to a similar group of moviegoers in Colorado.

It's going to be a steamy day here in Pittsburgh, too humid to do much in the garden, too depressing to keep watching the news, and too familiar to be all that shaken by another mass murder. My gentle and incredibly strong and dedicated neighbor at the cottage works with severely troubled kids in Erie. Since we're both therapists by trade, we seem to be able to sense when one of us has had a rough day. Every so often we'll sit together by the lake and just support one another without a lot of words...just a shared understanding of what he calls the wretchedness that is so prevalent in our world. We ran into each other the day after 9/11, and simply exchanged hugs...no words at all that day. I'll see him later this afternoon, and our moods will mirror one another again I'm sure.

Lives were changed in Colorado forever last night. The tears shed there will flow like a soaking rain, and the rest of us will mourn as well. If we were indeed all islands, we'd surely escape the overshadowing grief of days like today, but indeed we are not. I read once where someone asked a question about wars....about whose side God was on...and the reply was that God is on the side of those who suffer...they'll need God in Colorado.

There's a certain wonderful innocence about heading out for a midnight premier of an exciting new movie. Seeing that shattered and lost in a matter of minutes is such a demoralizing experience. ...heartbreaking for every one of us...and all too familiar.