I grew up loving The Wizard of Oz. I was fortunate to play Dorothy in our public school’s production and therefore, have known the entire script since the time that I was 9 years of age (we used the original MGM script). And so, I had another full circle moment, when I took my girls to see Wicked, the prequel, on the week-end. I had seen the Wicked stage production many moons ago, but there was something special seeing the new Wicked movie with my girls. We had a blast and I have been playing Defying Gravity non stop on my commute and at home.
The words really speak to me, because I have been dealing with an issue, and I find the words very inspiring. I pushed back against the status quo and instead of engaging in a healthy discussion, I was just immediately shot down and basically told to know my place. It was an upsetting exchange because it was not private. It stung.
And listening to the lyrics in Defying Gravity, make me feel understood:
I’m through accepting limits
‘Cause someone says they’re so
Some things I cannot change
But ’til I try, I’ll never know
Because the exchange described above was draining, and I am at a place where I am mindful about conserving my energy and being selective on how it is used. And I now find that I have to give myself a pep talk going into a lot of meetings because although I would like to stay quiet, I cannot because that would not be true to me. And it would not be true to the future I would like my kids to encounter and the changes I would like to see enacted to make things better. And so I steel myself, because although we would like to think that we are at a time where diversity is embraced and the people are my mindful of others, at the end of the day, it is a live issue and I see more back sliding than forward motion.
Perhaps I will be playing Defying Gravity in advance of meetings, as my pep song? It will take the place of Eye of the Tiger; I will keep you posted!
However, the other thing that stood out to me about Wicked, was a particular scene, that caused me to quickly groan. If you are South Asian and have seen the movie, you will know what I am talking about. But for those of you who are not, when I was growing up, I was taught to be respectful of the written word, in any form; newspaper, book, magazine – it was to be respected. And in our culture, the highest form of disrespect would be to put your foot on a book. As a child, not stepping on books was instilled in me as a form of respect for knowledge, and it is a tradition that has been passed on to my kids. We do not steps on books!
So when I watched the musical number in Wicked, where they are in the library, and are stepping and dancing on books, I gasped and had a hard time watching it. And when I went on social media, and saw that it was a common observation of many South Asians, I felt a sense of community.
Oh well – you can’t please everyone. It still did not take away my enjoyment of watching Wicked.
But that’s just one Diva’s view.
Diva's View 