#livekingdom

This past holiday, I fell down a rabbit hole. (Or more rightly, I got swept up in a tornado YouTube tornado...) It started innocently enough: a friend posted a video on Facebook where a percussionist had a GoPro strapped to his head to show what the pit looked like during “Good Morning Baltimore” from Hairspray. It was awesome! ‘Auxiliary percussion’ may not sound as glamorous as ‘set drummer’, but it’s incredibly important to the full sound of the orchestra. 

I watched one video, then another, and then I saw some videos of pit percussionists playing Defying Gravity—from a powerful musical about an incredible young woman who chooses to live for what’s right instead of what’s presently in vogue. Then I saw a few other songs from that musical, and finally an interview with the pit drummers for Hamilton.

I moved on with my day—even got to spend some time gaming on Zoom with my family. But later on that night, that song got stuck in my head again: 

I’m through accepting limits  ‘Cause someone says they’re so. Some things I cannot change, But til I try, I’ll never know.

Too long I’ve been afraid of Losing love I guess I’ve lost; Well, if that’s love, It comes with much to high a cost!

I’d sooner buy defying gravity...

It caught me again so powerfully that I scoured the internet for a pay-to-view copy of a full performance. And then, when I had exhausted my resources, I stumbled upon a bootleg copy. (Yes—they exist... and there’s even one of the Original Broadway Cast out there, although the video quality is rough [and there are some ‘oops!’ moments—must’ve been a preview...]) Why not just listen to the soundtrack? Because—I remembered there was more to the plot, and I had a sneaking suspicion that there was more to what it meant than I had previously understood.

You see, when I first saw the musical about the ‘untold true story of the Witches of Oz,’ I was thrown by its title: Wicked. As an evangelical teen/early twenty-something--and a pastoral ministry student to boot--I was extremely uncomfortable with the idea of a musical that I perceived as teaching moral relativism: "teaching us how bad wasn’t really bad”; that, in fact, being ‘wicked’ is in the eye of the beholder. 

But I was wrong.

My perception of the point of the musical was about as far off as it could have been. I still believe that there are people who do objectively wicked things, but I had missed something. I had entered the theatre with a judgment already made, based on a label someone else had given to me. My fear of the word “wicked” had cause me to uncritically dismiss anything labeled as such. I had literally been the person the musical was trying to call out. Embarrassingly, I’m only just now grasping the power behind Elphaba’s story. She is remarkable: an exceptional young woman with a heart of kindness wrapped in insecurity, self-loathing, and abusive memories who finds strength to both love herself and stand against what is truly evil, even when vilified for it. Seething in righteous indignation over obvious injustices perpetuated both privately and in broad daylight, she chooses a life of exile and integrity--while evil people call her “wicked”--rather than one of popularity--through espousing what was truly detestable. 

Yes—the Wicked one ends up not being the Witch of the West. It ends up being the Wizard: the charlatan that fortuitously blew into power and now works to keep up appearances by feeding public frenzy and twisting the truth. “It’s not lying—it’s history!” The underlying rationale of the swindler behind the curtain? Moral ambiguities are fodder for public control. [And the Wizard’s press team swirls around him like a tornado, tearing down opposition “with her calumnies and lies”--she lies.]

That never happens in real life, of course... 

I mean, how often do we make villains of the very people suffering for doing good? How often do we paint a character over a person to satisfy our need to blame someone? How often does our togetherness come from hatred rather than love? (Those questions are rhetorical—but maybe you should answer them in your head...)

And how often are the people that we claim as “wonderful” indeed playing us?? When will we discover the difference between what’s really true and what we’re being told is true to manipulate our actions? What will we do?

As if to prove my point, if you’re still reading this, you’re probably trying to figure out which side I land on. You’re also probably thinking that the other side—the one you’ve always been taught to side against—is the one with the ‘wonderful wizard’ who’s really a first-class creep. But what if you’re actually on the ‘wizard’s’ side? What if you’re the one following the person manipulating public opinion (in part or on the whole) for the sake of personal gain?

Wizards will bluster in and bluster out. Some of them may run themselves out of hot air before they cause any harm. But some of them will irreparably hurt people while regularly inventing alternate narratives that say they are really doing right by those same people. Some of them will say anything to be able to take their place behind the curtain, pulling levers as “Oz the Great and Powerful.” And we shouldn’t let them.

But even if they do: we must not lose our sense of what is most right. And part of that is defending the dignity of those who are being trampled on by others. Whether they be mistreated captives, dehumanized to serve the agenda of the powerful, or individuals who have been silenced by fear for so long that they have forgotten their voice, we must restore the dignity of each individual through kindness and compassion. For those who claim to follow Jesus, this is not an option. No: it is, in fact, the surest call of the Savior who let himself be crucified as a ‘wicked man’ after having done nothing wrong. 

So, this summer, when people on either side of the limelight lie, telling you how what you’ve heard them say and seen them do isn’t really what you heard and saw, try three things:

First, choose not to perpetuate the abuse by espousing the lie. Don’t bear false witness to your country, your friends, or your ‘enemies’ for the sake of your candidate.

Second, be a person who does what’s kind and good, even if people villify you. The real villains here are the ones who are telling people who to hate.

And finally, be a person who is willing to listen to the other viewpoint—and who will protect even the people they disagree with. 

We need more Elphabas—more brave young women (and men too--and people of all ages!) who aren’t afraid to say and do what’s right. People who are willing to live out the ideals of honesty, decency, and respect for others, even when it costs them dearly. And people who are willing to fight to end lies, hatred, and abuse. We need them—and we need to celebrate them, too--because they call us back to our best.

It’s time to try defying gravity.

And when we do that?

Nobody in all of Oz No wizard that there is or was Is ever gonna bring [us] down