Thirty

My first-born is 30 years old! Because we are all about Wicked this month and can’t wait to see the new film again with Léah and Rachmiel when they come to town in a few days,  I’m thinking of Léah’s connection to that musical and to its source material, The Wizard of Oz, a story that was also extremely important to me growing up. I hope no one (especially Léah!) takes this the wrong way, but to me Léah was always WAY more Elphaba than Glinda. Not the pretty-in-pink bubbly girl with the flighty voice who said all the right things and was popular as all get-out but could never really be trusted in the end. Nope, from the earliest of ages, Léah was more the marching-to-their-own-drum, often misunderstood, harder-to-read intellect who longed for community but wasn’t going to sacrifice their core identity to fit in or abandon their soul to gain power. The reason I’ve always appreciated Wicked so much is precisely because it goes beneath the surface and looks at the true meaning of goodness and self-worth.

There are so many beautiful songs in Wicked that I think perfectly describe the way Léah has been "dancing through life" and their pathway to their calling as a rabbi. Léah has been defying gravity for much of their life and long ago decided that they were “through playing by the rules of someone else’s game.”

I'm through accepting limits
'Cause someone says they're so
Some things I cannot change, but 'til I try, I'll never know!

But when I think of my own relationship with my wonderful child over these last three decades, I can only think of the lyrics to “For Good.”

I've heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you.

Like a comet pulled from orbit
As it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder
Halfway through the wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you
I have been changed for good.

Happy Birthday, Léah. I love you!

Comments

[Tamarika]

How wonderful to read this post, Danny. Happy Birthday to Leah!

[The Retropolitan]

Wow. This makes even me feel old.