Our Town
courtesy of stageagent.com
“Our Town is a play (by Thornton Wilder) that shares the idea that we live life without really appreciating what it has to offer. Once we die, and are able to see what we had, it is really too late. Major themes of the play include mortality, appreciating life, companionship and marriage, love, and the circle of life.”https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Our_Town
My daughter Erin and I recently attended a performance of this amazing play at a local high school. I was especially interested in seeing it because I performed in this play when I was in college. It brought back so many memories.
At the time I was too young (20) to fully appreciate the main theme, how we so often take our life for granted, assuming there will always be plenty of time to reach our goals, to enjoy family life, to contribute to society through our careers. Yet so often life is cut short by an unexpected loss through illness or death or abandonment in some form and we can never get it back in the same way.
I left the theater feeling the impact of the theme in a new way (this time at age 81) and committed anew to living the rest of my life with greater thought and deeper appreciation for the gift of being here for however many years I am given.
Thank you, Thornton Wilder, for seeing this in your own life and passing it on to us through your amazing script.
I found that re-reading the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible to be good follow-up to the themes of this play.
Thanks, Karen. You are so right! We need to take more time to appreciate just ‘being here’ and I do thank God often that I am “here” and have a wonderful life with my daughter and son-in-law. I think as I get older and older (ha-92) and not so active, I have learned just how much I DO appreciate life. I especially appreciate the fact I do not have pain with this unusual balance condition. The fact I have eyes and can see all the beautiful sunsets is enough to make me appreciate ‘being here’.
Blessings to you and I hope your eyesight is great! Margaret
Thanks, Margaret. What a lovely bit of encouragement and yes, my eyesight has already improved. One more cataract to go!
Karen, I saw that wonderful play performed when I was in high school, and I also wrote a paper on it for my English class. The themes made a deep impact, and your lovely post brought them home to me once again. Thank you!
I think Our Town may have unknowingly played a role in the five books I wrote with titles that begin with, “Life’s Too Short…” Amazing how many years have passed since then!
Each day is a gift, for sure, and I concur with what you wrote about being “committed anew to living the rest of my life with greater thought and deeper appreciation for the gift of being here for however many years I am given.”
Amen! Hugs to you, and Merry Christmas!
Thanks for this lovely post, Judy. So good to hear from you about your memory of “Our Town.”
Thank you Karen for this timely subject. I have just recently had my 80th birthday. I did thank God for the years he has given me. My family planned wonderful weekend of surprises. This was just this last weekend.
I wish you a blessed Christmas.
Joan, congrats on turning 80. I’m one year ahead of you. I’m so glad your family celebrated you with lovely surprises.
Thank you Karen. We so often get caught up in the minutia of our lives that we forget to look at the big picture and those things that matter most. Someone just wrote me about a cartoon she saw in which St. Peter greeted a newcomer to heaven, with “You had a wonderful life, but you missed most of it because you were looking at your cell phone all the time.”
Thanks for a great reminder. Bless you!
This is such a cute comment, Carol, about the cell phone. SOOO true. I often wonder what we focused on before cell phones. They are wonderful but still an addiction if we let them.