Thursday, December 4, 2008

"Turn Back" to "Learn Your Lessons Well"

In my Romantic Comedy class, we watched Madonna's Like a Prayer video. It inspired me to go further research Mary Magdalene which lead to the research of Jesus Christ Superstar, the rock-opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber; which then inspired going back to the musical Godspell.

Going through the plot and seeing the names of the songs transport me back to my younger years when I was into acting. Along with people that became my friends and confidants, we performed for 3 years musicals inspired by the Bible. Seeing the names of these songs reminds me of how young and how naive I once was. In that time, I lived for those moments and shared the joy of rehearsal with my fellow actors.

The names of the songs and what they implied, as well as what they expressed, once lost on me, make complete sense now. I am now able to find a deeper meaning in what we sang about for all those hours. As lighthearted as some of those songs seemed so long ago, now become serious critiques of a world similar to the one we now live in. The childhood joy and lightheartedness I brought in my daily journeys of rehearsal, suddenly transforms into a realization of the filter childhood innocence can place on situations.

This realization has encouraged me to research and dig into things further. Over time, the realization that childhood movies, including many Disney movies, hide sexual content by disguising it under other content. Even childhood stories such as Rumpelstiltskin hides the moral reality of evil through an enjoyable story. How many other things have hidden ideology? Everything around us has a hidden agenda and to go back to reflect on these things leads to further reflections and realizations. Will you go back and discover things once hidden?

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