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Why The Arts Are Good Sunday we took my parents and Greg's parents and my grandparents out to brunch, which was lovely. On Saturday night I had carefully wrapped Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop's presents and put them in a bag next to the door, alongside a separate bag which contained a gift I'd picked up for my stepfather to give my mother, plus the stuff for her stocking (which I always supply). We were driving to brunch on Sunday and as we passed the airport Greg asked Did you remember the presents? Why, no. No, I didn't. So tonight while Greg and his parents went off to see Adaptation (which I didn't really want to see because Nicolas Cage and his missing H make me cranky and Being John Malkovich, while very clever, made me feel unclean) and eat Indian food (which usually upsets my stomach a lot), I went back to New Jersey to deliver the presents. My parents weren't home, so I left the bag in their living room with a towel over it and a big note for my mom not to look. I dropped my grandparents' gifts off, and Pop-Pop had been asleep in his chair so I kissed them both and wished them Merry Christmas and only stayed a couple of minutes. Then I got in my car, and I went over to Mandy's Christmas party. (Quick reminder: Mandy is a former show choir member who goes to college in Boston now; she's in a relationship with Joe, another former show choir member who was one of my assistant directors this summer; they're both two of my very favorite people and were both in attendance at the wedding party.) It was very low-key, like most of our gatherings are - just food and music and good times. It's the most welcoming atmosphere in my life - walking into the room brings smiles and squeals and hugs and love, for everyone, whether we've seen one another the day before or two years before. It's been awhile since I've seen several of these people, and two of them hardly recognized me (my hair was still short, I think, the last time we saw each other). Some of them had been together at Thanksgiving, some in the summer, and some, like me, hadn't seen others for a very long time. It never matters. When Christina came in, we all stood up to hug her and then we stood in big circles for twenty minutes, because we do that - it's a signature move, along with standing in parking lots long after we should be home. At one point I was showing Mandy some wedding pictures (which will be up here soon, I promise, as soon as I get the damn scanner to work) and that reminded her to tease Brooke about always having her camera and then Mandy's sister Jenny (lovely, graceful, a dancer) tripped over a table on her way to the soda and everyone turned and started teasing her instead, and Joe turned to me and said Nothing ever changes. And I replied, You could take any one of these parties of ours and put it down in any year, and it will always be like this. And then we smiled at each other, because that's true, and it's wonderful. A lot of us are scattered now. Some of us are away at college or living in other states. But a lot of us are older, and not just me and Phil and Jimmy anymore. Everyone - everyone I was in the group with, and those I grew closest to while managing - is growing up, or already grown up. They're growing up strong and beautiful and smart and talented. All of them. And they're - we're - growing up, and the ties remain strong. The ties that were formed because we all ended up in a theatre group together. Because we got together to sing and dance and entertain people and learn and travel and put on a show, we still get together. We still sing and dance, and some of us are learning to entertain people professionally and some of us just get together once a year to do it and some of us don't do it at all anymore, but because they did it once upon a time, are all the better for it. This is part of what makes me so angry when I hear that soccer teams get lighted fields and football teams get new uniforms and the music program gets cut from five days a week to one (or none) and the drama club has to bring in all their costumes from home. Sports are so all-encompassing and the arts? Expendable. When I look around at the people I know and the wonderful things they've begun to do, I am amazed. We got lucky. I've always known that, but it's nice to be reminded. That theatre group - no matter how flawed, no matter how full of drama - was a great gift. And every time one of those "kids," all grown up now, smiles at me or hugs me or instant messages me, eager to talk, or tells me that they love this journal and I realize that they are silently keeping in touch, I am reminded of that gift. I am reminded, and I hug it to me, and vow to never let it go. |