Some thoughts on… Reaching Escape Velocity

How do we tear away from the momentum we create for ourselves?  Many times we enter into orbits and stay rotating too long. We remain comfortable in our jobs and continue working even if we are not growing or gaining new experiences.  We endure broken relationships because we’re too scared to leave or be alone.  We assume there are few options available if we leave the known path.

For an object to move away from a well-established orbit, it must achieve escape velocity, the speed needed to "break free" from the gravitational attraction of a massive body, without further propulsion.  Let’s see what the Arts have to say about getting out of a rut.

Fun Home, the 2015 Tony Award winner for best musical, is Alison Bechdel’s memoir describing her coming out in college and the subsequent suicide of her gay father a few months later.  With music written by Jeanine Tesori along with book and lyrics by Lisa Kron,  the show is an inquiry into the family interactions that provide clues to the motivation behind her father’s death; for example, her mother’s knowledge of the father’s dalliances, the patriarch’s love for his daughter, and his inner struggle to acknowledge his true self while at the same time support a seemingly perfect life with three children.

This is an intimate production with the audience immersed into the daily household watching the unfolding story from a 360-degree perspective.  Alison doesn’t shake her self-imposed guilt, but she conjectures that her father likely faced his fears and found that the only way out was a path of self-destruction. For her, freedom comes from rising above his actions.  The story is as haunting as it is uplifting.  No better candidate for the Tony award.

Waitress is a musical coming to Broadway in the spring and which just finished a successful run in Boston at the A.R.T.  The original movie by Adrienne Shelly was an art house gem that was overshadowed by the death of the author.  The story, brought to life again on the stage by Diane Paulus, is about a pie-maker who uses her exceptional talent at the local diner/pie shop.  She stays in an abusive relationship with her husband because she is too scared to leave, and then faced with a pregnancy, she keeps the child and stumbles into a messy love-triangle.

The music and lyrics by Sarah Bareilles drives the performance and the main character played by Jessie Muelle wins the audience through her earnest yearning and soaring voice.  Although she doesn’t have the resources to change her path, the birth of her daughter pushes her onto a route that she wouldn’t have taken by herself.

The two shows provide hints on how to reach escape velocity.  First we have to face what’s scaring us – fear of inadequacy, inability to retool skills, display of failure. This examination and self-knowledge though painful and revealing may give us the courage to depart from our orbits.

Second and perhaps more important, we need an exogenous kick – an event that will trigger departure.  For the father in Fun Home, the kick was the freedom with which his daughter was able to express her nature.  For Waitress, it was the birth of her daughter. 

In both cases, similar to a satellite circling in space, without the exogenous push the character would stay in their self-prescribed trajectory.  A friendly kick can go a long way.

Some thoughts on… Identifying the Enemy

Recent occurrences of violence and terrorism and the response to them, e.g. the report on CIA use of anti-terrorism techniques; police force to subdue protests and crimes in New York and Ohio; the murder of newspaper staff in Paris, have raised two questions in my mind.

First, how do we identify the enemy in these situations? In the case of the French slaying is it the two brothers, radical Islamic belief, or Muslim ideology in general that is to blame? Second, once we do identify the perpetrators, what should be the appropriate response? Are responses like water-boarding, rectal probing or chokeholding suitable?

Three current shows and films provide some perspective on these questions. Let’s see what the Arts have to say.

Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s movie adaptation of Into the Woods is a captivating fable outlining the repercussions of getting our wishes and how that may not necessarily lead to a fairy tale ending.  Initiating the musical with familiar parables like Cinderella, Jack and the Bean Stalk and Little Red Riding Hood, the authors illustrate how each character’s pursuit of their one wish with a relentless passion can lead to unforeseen damage to the community when these selfish paths crisscross. 

In this case, witches, giants and old family sins reappear wreaking havoc on our protagonists.  Although these are easy targets for being the enemies of the story, we see that it is the pursuit of our heroes’ desires that unleashes them in the first.  The actions of these enemies may need to be stopped, but their motivations are just the same as ours.  As Sondheim writes: “Witches can be right, Giants can be good, you decide what’s right you decide what’s good.  Just remember someone is on your side, someone else is not.  When you’re seeing your side, maybe we forgot they are not alone. No one is alone.”

Disgraced is the Pulitzer Prize winning play by Ayad Akhtar.   Set in present day New York, we witness two couples having dinner until a bewildering act of violence throws the characters into a harsh light.  The culprit is clear and the response to his actions tempers the motivation behind the deed. Through their conversations, the characters invoke an important distinction - the response to a misdeed depends on how strongly an individual or society values either order or justice.  If one highly values justice, retribution can be swift and as cruel as the original act of violence.  If one highly values order, we accept that the penalty for a crime will take longer and will be more measured. 

Similar to many countries of the world, American society swings between these values.  After the 9/11 attacks, justice was highly prized and the government sanctioned methods such as waterboarding.  With the passing of time we swing back to order.  In the play, the act of violence is motivated by a sense of justice, and yet surprisingly the other characters’ response is one of order.  By responding in this manner, a cycle of violence is upended, and the culprit feels even more shame for the deed.

The Imitation Game describes the story of Alan Turing during the critical years when he worked with a team to break the Nazi codes and helped win World War II.  The title is based on one of his papers that describes how a computer may someday be able to mimic human thought.  The movie portrays the imitation game on additional levels - how the Allies tried to break the German code by replicating the results, and how Turing tried to mimic individuals in general society despite his awkward nature and homosexuality.

A pioneer in his field, Turing looked to find a way to outthink his rivals.  Rather than use brute force to break the codes, he devised a machine and system that could “learn” from its past actions thus getting smarter the more calculations that it conducted.  In the modern day our rice cookers conduct these computations, in 1941 England it was a system of vacuum tubes and analog dials filling a house.  Once the code was broken, Turing’s team used the information to decisively outmaneuver by staying one step ahead of the Axis’ intentions.

From these shows, we see that although it may be easy to identify an enemy at face, it’s important to recognize that their actions could be motivated by a series of decisions both theirs and ours that were initiated by selfish interests.  We shouldn’t necessarily forgive the perpetrators, but approaching the punishment with a sense of order rather than justice, can prevent the initiation of a cycle of violence.  Finally, by reflecting on our enemies’ motivations and thinking the way they do, we may be able to stay ahead of the game.