How something a long time ago teaches a lesson
Two and a half years ago during my freshman year in college, I was given a CD filled with songs from a play that I had never even heard of or cared about. I was told by my music teacher that I was going to be singing a duet with a girl that I didn’t even know and that we would be performing it at a concert with the show choir. At first I was pissed because I really didn’t want to stand out and have to sing a song that I didn’t really feel like singing. When I first heard the song I thought it was kind of catchy. Listened to it the next time and it caught on me….I realized I liked it. After practicing it a few times with the girl I fell in love with the song. Sometimes certain songs just make you get emotional or remind you of special memories and that is what the song did. At this point I still had not listened to any other songs on the CD.
A few weeks after the concert I was taking a road trip and I was bored so I decided that I was going to pop the CD in and try to listen to it all the way through and see what happens. Little did I know that this CD was packed full of songs that I actually thought were really good. But, it did seem a little odd, me being a southern, right wing conservative, white male, to like music from a Broadway play or show. So, once I got done listening to it I was amazed at the songs. My first thought was wow I have to see this! I’m not really sure what they are talking about but from the emotions in the song it sounds like something I would really like. But it was a play after all and no way could I sit through that and plus I would have to drive a long ways to go see it even if they did decide to put it on again.
After that I put the CD back in its case and put it under my seat so that nobody could see that I possessed something like that. The only time I brought it out was when ever I was feeling down and out or sad. There was just something about this other song….talking about 525,600 minutes…or something like that…I had no clue about the significance of this song or the meaning but when ever I would listen to it I would feel like I wrote the song or it was a piece of me. During that time in my life I was going through a difficult transition because all my friends had gone off to school and I just felt like I had been left out. I really didn’t have any close friends left so it was kind of like starting over for me. During those hard times that song would lift me up and make all things new again. It would just make me really appreciate everything I have and to count each minute I am alive as a blessing. Little did I know that this song and the one I sang in the show would become a piece of a puzzle locked away into my heart that would always trigger thoughts of emotions.
Time went by and I didn’t even think about trying to inquire about it. In fact two years went by without even a thought about that song or the emotions of that time. One night while I was sitting in the fraternity house a movie preview came on during a commercial brake. I normally don’t pay attention to commercials but this song started playing. All of a sudden all the hairs on my body stood up. I knew I had heard this song before but I couldn’t immediately tell. Then the verse started in and I almost lost it. The very mystery that had been buried in my mind and never solved had been re-manifested before me and come to life. The answers that I was seeking were being revealed to me. The Broadway that the song was from was Rent!! I finally knew the name, and not only did I know the name but they were actually making a movie out of it with the original cast members.
(This is my junior year at college) When I went home that thanksgiving I knew that I had to go see this. If there was one thing I was going to do it was go see that movie. Unfortunately, nobody really wanted to go see the movie with me so on thanksgiving evening I went out to the movies by myself to see this movie that had been tugging at me ever since I had seen its preview. So, I went in and sat through over two hours of it.
I must first say wow!!!! As some of you know I am from a strict, white, very conservative, very religious, republican family. I don’t believe in abusing substances even to level of TV, caffeine, soft drinks, and sweets. I am against homosexuality and can not stand the use of drugs. But yet the very thing piece that I thought would make the pieces of this mystery come together to make me a happy man, stood for everything that I didn’t believe!!!! How could this really be true?!?!?! Don’t get me wrong…the songs in the movie were very powerful, but how could people act that way in real life….?
I went home that night and went to sleep. The next day I was talking with my friend who had actually seen it that same day. He has the same belief system as I do and he was very disappointed with the movie and said that it pissed him off. When I hung up the phone with him I kind of had an epifocal moment. I suddenly came to the realization that the movie wasn’t about the drugs, or the sex, or the homosexuality, or the pure anarchy…blah, blah, blah….you really had to see past that and dive deep down into the meaning of the story. Once you did that you saw that the true meaning of the story was about Love…about acceptance for who you are….about making the best of the circumstances and situations that you are in….about realizing that it is not all about the material things that this world tries to pump into you. And then I realized why this whole situation had been placed into my life. Before this experience I would make gay jokes and look down upon homosexuals as dirty and all other insults. Now, I realize that these people are humans too, put in bad situations that sometimes can’t be helped, but instead of whining and complaining about things, they go out and make the best of it. Don’t get me wrong now, I don’t believe in homosexuality, but it doesn’t mean that I hate them. But now that this puzzle piece has been placed in my life to complete another puzzle, I feel like I have come to a new understanding for some reason…love and appreciation.
It really does stink that it was in theaters only because I would be the first one to buy the DVD, but I guess I will just have to settle with seeing it once or twice and that’s it. All I can say is that every time I hear 525,600 minutes it makes me think of love.
Best Wishes, Josh