Everywhere I turn people are talking about love. Gramps Morgan and Jimmy Cliff filled the Reichold Center with the sounds of joy and the absolute conviction that we are all connected, all part of the same divine consciousness and here to love one another.
My lovely charter guests on board Bel Ami played an audio book by Tich Nhat Hahn about love and relationships and how breaking down the barriers of anger and pain in our own hearts opens us to receive the gifts of love that surround us. Then, last night I watched West Side Story – the amazing musical about star crossed lovers (like Romeo and Juliet) whose desire to cross cultural boundaries results in the tragic deaths of three men. Maria, the Puerto Rican Juliet makes a passionate plea for an end to hatred.
I saw West Side Story on Broadway when it first came out in the 60’s. The score by Leonard Bernstein and words by Stephen Sondheim are etched in my memory forever. I can sing most of the songs and even do a few of the dance numbers but I thought it might be dated. It’s one of the most amazing shows I have ever seen (on screen or stage) and not only because of its great cast, score and choreography. I had forgotten the intense raw power of the ending that had us all in tears with one audience member skipping out because she couldn’t bear what she knew was going to happen.
West Side Story is based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The Jets – a gang of Italian American kids in New York City are pitted against the Sharks, a gang of new immigrant Puerto Ricans establishing themselves. In the midst of turf war and tough posing, Maria (the sister of Bernardo, head of the Sharks) and Tony (a former Jet who is now working instead of hanging out) meet at a dance. It’s love at first sight.
They stand on the fire escape singing Somewhere – an imaginary place where they are free to love one another.
Back on the streets, the gangs are planning a ‘rumble’ to determine who gets to rule the neighborhood and call the shots. The duel between two gang members turns bad when someone pulls a knife. Tony shows up to stop the rumble and gets pulled into the fight and ends up killing Bernardo (Maria ‘s brother) who has already killed a Jet. Before anyone knows what’s happening it’s a full on fight that disperses only at the sound of a police siren.
Just as Tony and Maria are about to run off to ‘Somewhere”, Tony is murdered to avenge Bernardo’s death and Maria cradles his body in her arms. She gives an impassioned speech to the Jets and the Sharks and says it was hatred that killed them all and now she has hatred in her heart.
Both gangs come together to lift Tony’s body in a procession that includes everyone. Maria’s grief and her love unite them and for a second you get the feeling that they understand that they are not different from one another and are ashamed at the horror and bloodshed they have caused.
There is nothing dated here. Given the violence that threatens to take over my beloved islands, I can think of no better message to share than Maria’s about the dead-end nature of the downward spiral of violence and hatred and that it is up to us to turn things around by seeing ourselves as connected to one another. One Love, One Heart….
When each of us, right here and now become conscious and move together toward the light of love, things will change. Reminding ourselves often that we are all facets of the same crystal and that we have been created in love helps us to open our hearts to everyone as we see that we are all facets of a giant gem.
Whatever your religion and whether you speak of God, a higher power, Jah, or the magic of a sunrise – setting your internal dial on loving kindness and compassion and resetting it over and over again leads us to the “Peace is Every Step” of Tich Nhat Hahn and to great joy.
Join me this morning in planting the seed of peace and love in your hearts. Water it each day and send prayers of healing to all who suffer and are in need, including you.
Let’s make the Somewhere that Maria and Tony sing about be here, now, for everyone. Let’s deliberately create lives we love and celebrate them in a world where it is safe to be ourselves.
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