Spring is here. We're all having spring awakenings. But I'm talking about the awakenings young people have when they reach puberty. All healthy young folks experience big changes and begin thinking about things that scare the bejebbers out of their parents.
I strongly believe that the way parents - and religious leaders - should deal with this awakening is - straight on. These changes are God-given and need to be affirmed. How we're gonna deal with them is serious business.
I wish that 15 year olds didn't have to deal with having the power of life and death. But they do. It's hard to believe that some 14 year olds don't know where babies come from.
On Saturday night Dave and I went, with several friends, to the University of Central Florida Theater to see the play "Spring Awakenings." A German play, written in 1890, it deals with the issue of adolescence in a severely oppressive society. When it first opened on Broadway it was banned and closed down the next night.
Decades later it was redone as a rock musical. In 2006 it was a huge hit on Broadway.
The UCF version of Spring Awakenings is excellent. The music and the young actors are amazing. It's also hard to watch, uncomfortable. To me, the central theme is that, in the late 1800s, in Germany, young people were to do as they were told, not ask questions, not express feelings and not embarrass their parents, the school or the church.
Joshua Chase Gold, the director of the play we saw on Saturday says this:
Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening, ....carries with it the rarely used subtitle "A Children's Tragedy." Taking my inspiration from this title, I searched for the tragedy of the piece. Dealing with once taboo....issues of sexuality, puberty, rape, abuse, abortion, homosexuality, and suicide the notion of "tragedy" seemed clear: the tragedy is in the circumstances. As I began to explore more and search for the story I wanted to tell, I realized that the tragedy, in fact, centers around the destructive things that can happen when we speak at each other instead of to each other.
The sad thing is that "children" are still suffering and dying - because we aren't respecting what they're going through and helping them navigate this exciting, dangerous, wonderful, agonizing time.
***
I strongly believe that the way parents - and religious leaders - should deal with this awakening is - straight on. These changes are God-given and need to be affirmed. How we're gonna deal with them is serious business. I wish that 15 year olds didn't have to deal with having the power of life and death. But they do. It's hard to believe that some 14 year olds don't know where babies come from.
On Saturday night Dave and I went, with several friends, to the University of Central Florida Theater to see the play "Spring Awakenings." A German play, written in 1890, it deals with the issue of adolescence in a severely oppressive society. When it first opened on Broadway it was banned and closed down the next night.
Decades later it was redone as a rock musical. In 2006 it was a huge hit on Broadway.
The UCF version of Spring Awakenings is excellent. The music and the young actors are amazing. It's also hard to watch, uncomfortable. To me, the central theme is that, in the late 1800s, in Germany, young people were to do as they were told, not ask questions, not express feelings and not embarrass their parents, the school or the church.
Joshua Chase Gold, the director of the play we saw on Saturday says this:
Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening, ....carries with it the rarely used subtitle "A Children's Tragedy." Taking my inspiration from this title, I searched for the tragedy of the piece. Dealing with once taboo....issues of sexuality, puberty, rape, abuse, abortion, homosexuality, and suicide the notion of "tragedy" seemed clear: the tragedy is in the circumstances. As I began to explore more and search for the story I wanted to tell, I realized that the tragedy, in fact, centers around the destructive things that can happen when we speak at each other instead of to each other.
The sad thing is that "children" are still suffering and dying - because we aren't respecting what they're going through and helping them navigate this exciting, dangerous, wonderful, agonizing time.
***
