I know that seems like a strange combination, but stay with me. For those of you who do not know what American Idiot is, it is a play based on the music of Green Day. We were fortunate enough to see it years ago on Broadway and last night we saw it again here in Birmingham with the Broadway in Birmingham series. As usual it was somewhat different here and for me at least, I was able to focus in more on the story last night than I did the first time I saw it.
The show is really all about the music and I could tell you the story in five minutes. It is a very rough, sometimes brutal look at the lives of 3 friends who all take very different, but difficult roads in life. One is a young man caught in an unwed, unwanted pregnancy and eventually fatherhood, which he fails at miserably. Another moves away and turns to drugs and the last one joins the service and eventually loses a leg. All three fight their demons and come out on the other side, back home and reunited. The language is coarse, the sentiment is harsh and mostly anti-establishment and anti-government. During the show, which runs about an hour and 45 minutes with no intermission, some older audience members got up and left. It is a lot to take in and between the foul language, loud music and many TV screens bombarding you with pop culture and political videos, it is an assault on all of your senses. What I don’t understand is why people don’t do any research before they plunk down big bucks for theatre tickets? While enjoying a lovely beverage before the show, we saw people in line buying t-shirts for what looked to be their 7-8 year old kids! I took Jon to see live theatre at a young age, but I was careful to research and discuss things with him before I took him. And at 7 or 8 he would not have seen this!
Today was Easter. It was a beautiful day and although Tim was exhausted after a long week and and even longer day today (he left the house to set up for sunrise service in the park at 5am!) and Jon seems to stay tired with his new hours at work, we all made it to church at some point. In church I thought about the play again, how these characters were lured away to different paths by the demons in their minds, their ego, or their past mistakes. Although they take a very long, rocky trail they all end up back at home. And isn’t that what we have spent Lent doing. Thinking, evaluating, fighting, growing and eventually coming home. As Tim said when I told a friend this, “I don’t think American Idiot is going to become an Easter tradition! The first F-bomb sort of takes care of that!” And of course, he is right. My point was, for the people who left the play early, they missed the rest of the story. Sure it was rough and there was loud music and cussing, but in the end there was redemption. And the people who left never saw that.
In discussing world events before I headed to church, Jon and I discussed why young people tend to not want to be a part of organized religion. It was a topic on the station where he works this week and he highlighted it on his end of the week recap show. I felt the answers were not hitting the real issues, but rather the issues old, white, conservative men were willing to discuss. I see young people leaving due to hypocrisy and the church being stuck on issues that many young people have moved past like gay rights. My hope is that I will stick around and fight, not cut and run as I have sometimes considered, long enough to see the redemption at the end. That eventually, even though it might be rough and loud at times, we will all figure out how to do that oh so simple and yet, oh so difficult command, love our neighbors as ourselves. Easter is the start of a new season, and for me it is a time to recommit to what I believe in. And I am not leaving until the show is over.
