She slowly rose from center stage alone in the
spotlight. She had been beaten down by
life; rejected, bullied, and totally defeated – Grizabella the Glamor Cat (Keri
Rene’fuller) belted out the final verse of Memories.
Touch
me!
It's so easy to leave me
All alone with the memory
Of my days in the sun
If you touch me, you’ll understand what happiness is
Look, a new day has begun.
It's so easy to leave me
All alone with the memory
Of my days in the sun
If you touch me, you’ll understand what happiness is
Look, a new day has begun.
I choked up and tears ran from my eyes. The music, her voice - it was powerful!
I did not expect the sudden flood of emotion.
Today I had the privilege to attend a live performance of
the musical CATS at the Fischer Theatre in Detroit Michigan. I have seen the show before and I know the
music well, but I have not seen it live for many years. My son was part of the
orchestra, which is always exciting for me, but as I watched the stage
performers I was surprised by my emotions. I was also struck by a real-life
lesson that I saw running through the performance.
Even the most repulsive of creatures may be beautiful on the
inside.
Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the
1939 book of poetry called Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S.
Eliot. It is the story of a tribe of
cats call the Jellicles and their annual Jellicle Ball where they decide which
cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer to come back to life. The musical opened in 1981 and is the fourth
longest running Broadway show.
As I watched the Grizabella character shunned and then
accepted by the other cats, I thought of the animals and the people that we
care for each day. Some of them are just
as repulsive and ugly to us, as Grizabella was to the cats. They are critical, impatient, demanding, and
some even bite (usually just the pets).
Some of them are beaten and are broken down by the problems in their lives. They come to us unhappy and stressed asking
for help then often redirect their negativity onto us.
In those moments we are faced with a choice. Our choice is to either treat the people and
their pets with respect, or join them in their stress and negativity. We can choose to try to increase their
happiness or we can let them take ours.
Maybe if we try to keep an open mind and look closer, we may
see that they have some redeeming qualities on the inside. Some inner
beauty. If we can see it, we may be able
to have more empathy and not allow them to affect us negatively. Because, even the most repulsive of creatures
may be beautiful on the inside.
That is the simple lesson that I got from CATS.
Dr. Julie Cappel
“Happiness doesn’t result from what we get, but from what we
give.” -Ben Carson
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