Unimaginable

This past Saturday, I was in Ottawa and treated my daughter to a matinee performance of Hamilton. It was phenomenal. 

(and those were the smiles BEFORE the production even started!) 

Watching the production live (as opposed to the Disney+ version) reminded me that so much of the spectacular art we consume daily is about death. Think about Shakespeare's plays, Hollywood blockbusters, books that top the New York Times best sellers list... doesn't it seem like the most popular, the most resonant art centralizes around the theme of death?

But why? 

Simply put, I think it is because art is aspirational. And society sucks at death. Full stop. 

In the musical Hamilton, so many songs and scenes centre on death, but in one song, I was particularly hit by the aspiration for compassion that the play exudes.

In the song It's Quiet Uptown, after Alexander Hamilton's son dies, the cast sings "have pity on him, he's working through the unimaginable". 

Truly, I long for a world where we could give the space this song requests to anyone going through grief. Imagine living in a world where we can remind one another to go gently on each other (and ourselves) in times of grief? 

What grace.