Profile for kmiller10

I inhaled this book in one sitting. James Lapine writes about the creation of one of my favorite musicals of all time: Sunday in the Park With George. I enjoyed reading about the creative/collaborative process he and Stephen Sondheim took in creating this masterpiece.
I first discovered the musical itself when I was at a difficult crossroads in my life. At the time, I was facing some serious and life changing decisions. So much of the music/lyrics spoke to me at the time. This lyric in particular, from “Move On”…

Stop worrying where you're going
Move on
If you can know where you're going
You've gone
Just keep moving on

I chose, and my world was shaken
So what?
The choice may have been mistaken
The choosing was not
You have to move on

These words stuck in my brain and became almost like a mantra. They helped me build up the courage to make the choices I needed to make.

And then, there’s what I consider to be the best song in the history of musical theater, “Finishing the Hat”.
Though the character, George, is singing about creating art, and getting lost in that world of creation, the lyrics resonated in me. I am a teacher. Teaching is both a science and an art. This fact is one of the many reasons I have loved my vocation for so long. Creating lessons and units of study is an art form that can be totally absorbing. So, when George sings the following, I understood completely:

Finishing the hat
How you have to finish the hat
How you watch the rest of the world
From a window while you finish the hat
Mapping out a sky
What you feel like, planning a sky
What you feel when voices that come
Through the window
Go
Until they distance and die
Until there's nothing but sky
And how you're always turning back too late
From the grass or the stick
Or the dog or the light
Coming from the hat, studying the hat
Entering the world of the hat
Reaching through the world of the hat
Like a window
Back to this one from that

If you’re unfamiliar with this Pulitzer Prize winning show, you can probably stream in on YouTube. I hear that it’s definitely streaming on Hoopla.

Thanks

https://filesynced.org