He's a Good Elephant

You all know I'm a musician. One of my current gigs is an Arts School in town and we just finished our production of Seussical the Musical. I somehow managed to talk my husband into bringing the kids last night. We figured it's time for them to be able to start sitting through something besides a TV show or school. And since the musical was a shortened version of the Broadway production (cut down to 1:10 as opposed to 1:45), I thought this might be a good place to start.

I love being a musician and entertainer. At the core of it, I love it because music, theater, art, whatever media you are working with has the inherent ability to move something on the inside of people. And if you are lucky, you might inspire someone or make them stop and think. And if you are really working hard at it, you just might take people on a journey and let them forget life for awhile.

I just didn't expect to get to do that with my OWN kids.

They slipped in last night as the curtain was coming up. From what I gather, Z2 sang along almost the entire time. Apparently she has "relocated" the Seussical CD to her CD player and has learned all the music. And in the scene where Gertrude McFuzz eats the berries from the pillberry bush to grow her tail, Z2 whispered (think soft roar) to everyone around her,"MY mom made that bush! She did! That's her at the piano! See her? That's MY mom!"

Yes, plenty of giggles ensued.

When I got home last night, Z1 was still awake. I asked him what he thought and he said,"Mom, I want to be Horton one day. He's a good man. Well, good elephant."

Yes, the flowers I got last night are beautiful. The applause, I'll admit, I loved it. And it's wonderful to hear how much people liked it and appreciated our hard work. Working with other peoples' kids- mostly rewarding.

But when you make your own kids proud, when you take them on an adventure, when you stop and make them think without a lecture or some form of discipline, when you connect with what's on the inside of them, that's better than anything else I can think of.

Yours, relishing the rewards of such an unexpected adventure,

Melissa