|
I love Broadway musicals! So often, they provide
entertainment; additionally, the genre helps me appreciate
relationships, happiness, frustration, adversity, tragedy,
and loss, just to name a few.
There are so many great musicals; here are some of my
favorites. Fiddler on the Roof gives voice to
the full range of feelings of those who were living in the
small settlements in Russia in the early 1900's. The story
centers on Teyve, the father of 5 daughters, and his
attempts to maintain his traditions as outside influences
encroach upon the family's lives. In Wicked,
two very different people find very different paths to
fulfill their lives; Elphaba taking the hard road and
Defying Gravity. In Dear Evan Hansen, a young
man is growing up without a father and his mother is
preoccupied with trying to survive and support her son. Evan
is anxious, depressed and isolated and falls into a deep
dark place until he gets caught in an unusual circumstance
that causes him to invent a lie. The mistruth, via social
media, goes viral, at first crowning him a hero and once the
truth is known, he experiences utter embarrassment, shame
and despair. In Beautiful, the story of Carole King, a
gifted songwriter, her songs chronicle her life with her
husband, Gerry Goffin, a manic depressive with a
poly-substance abuse illness. Carole found her own truth and
strength, left the marriage with her children, moved to
California, and was reborn.
Broadway brings us life with so many lessons. As such, it
challenges us to examine our lives and then move forward
with perhaps more kindness and understanding for the people
we care about. The shows above are just a few of my very
favorites. If you are bored or sad or idle, if you are
feeling anxious, get in the moment and distract yourself
with a pleasurable activity. Stream your favorite Broadway
hits.
This link will give you access
to a free 7-day trial.
The numbers:
Maryland:
21,742 cases -/- 1,047 deaths -/- 4.8% fatality rate
(+62 deaths from yesterday)
Locally, all remains stable.
The Maryland Ro:
(see April 22 Update for explanation of Ro)
No real change,
we remain in the green zone,
0.87;
lower is better.
Early on, I was thinking that our national death total would
not exceed 60,000. That was overly optimistic thinking on my
part. Nevertheless, tragically the most vulnerable are
people who make up the largest percentage of the death toll
and we have not yet been able to protect them well. In
Maryland,
48% of our deaths are in older
patients who are in nursing care facilities.
Tragically, COVID-19 ravaged these fragile people who had an
aged immune system along with heart disease, diabetes, prior
strokes, and were woefully immunocompromised. Furthermore,
they reside in an environment with staff that was not
prepared with personal protective gear or trained to use it.
The projected national death toll as of April 29,
by the Murray model, is 72,000.
|
