A Long Drawn Out Excuse

Hey guys... it's been a while. I am sorry about that. I've been in my school's musical and for the past few weeks, it's pretty much taken over my life. Is that a good excuse? No.

Still, now I have good writing material! I'm on Spring Break now, and I regret to say that I left my Theology of the Body book at school so I can't read a section and analyze it like I usually do. But, I would like to talk about my experiences with the play, Pippin, in relation to Theology of the Body.

For those of you who don't know (CONTAINS SPOILERS), Pippin is about a young man trying to find his place in the world. Even more entertaining, it's a play within a play. There are a bunch of players in a troupe who decided to pull a random man off the street, name him "Pippin", and cast him as the lead. First, Pippin tries war and fights in the crusades. Then, Pippin tries random sex promoted by his grandmother, Berthe (played by yours truly - ironic, right?). Last, Pippin tries revolting against his father, King Charlemagne, and ruling over the empire. None of those work out well, so Pippin runs away in despair and meets Catherine, a regular women (in the play-within-a-play plot, she's not a "player" so to say). She lives a very ordinary life, but the two fall in love. Pippin decides that it's not enough and runs away again. In his moment of despair, the players come back and tell Pippin that he should participate in the "Grand Finale", which is essentially burning himself alive. He almost gives in, but Pippin runs back to Catherine and they live... ordinarily, but happily. So the moral of the story is that you don't have to be extraordinary to be content.

Sounds great, right? Here are my moral objections: first, the love between Catherine and Pippin. It develops slowly, but it peaks at a point in the play where they have sex. I guess I don't have to point out that they're not married. I think I've mentioned in my blog at least a few times... that's not love. Whether or not they know it, they're using each other. There are bonds and commitments that come with sex that, unless the couple is married, they are not ready for! Two blogs back, I wrote that sex within marriage brings the couple together. But sex without a marriage is a lie, and I can't think of any good relationships based on a lie.

Probably the worst part about this is that it is presented as good in the show. When the players try to fry Pippin, this is where he chooses to go back to. Because he loves her, and Pippin sings about how "it", or happiness, was never in the flashy lights and the costumes and the "magic" that the players provided. It was in the simple love. This would be perfectly good if the play wasn't misrepresenting love! "Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Cor 13:4-7). Pippin wasn't always patient, Catherine sings that he wasn't a good or kind man. Their love is based on a wrongdoing, premarital sex. Most important of all, love endures all. Look, in the play it does, but in reality... there won't be any lasting or enduring relationships based on a lie.

Second problem with the morality of the show: me!

My character was Berthe, who I accurately describe as Pippin's horny grandmother. Berthe live in the country with her men, and you can only imagine what these men do for her. Then she encourages Pippin to go out and "start livin'!"... in other words, have sex with everyone he possibly can. This moves onto an orgy scene, which I can gratefully say gave a representation of sex without being graphic. In other words, my character wanted her grandson to go out and use as many people as he could for his own pleasure. Once again, anybody else see the irony of me being cast as this character?

One thing I can say for this part of the show: it was presented as wrong. After the orgy, Pippin breaks away and tries to stay away. In the plot of the story, random sex was not going to make him happy. So, you've got to be happy with the silver linings!

So you may be asking, why was I in this play? I will partially play the ignorance card. I truly had no idea what Pippin was about. I watched a little bit before I auditioned, but I suppose I was hopeful that the play wouldn't be too wrong. I do attend a Catholic school. It could have been worse... I will give it that much, but it was wrong. Did I have fun? Yes. But it was difficult for me balancing the line between this is fun and this is wrong. I think this is a struggle we all face at times.

Dear Lord, we all struggle discerning right from wrong at times. More than that, we all struggle choosing to do right in amongst the wrong. Please guide us Lord, and protect us all from sin and evil.