“Hamilton” is the
hottest ticket in town these days. My
kids have been begging to see it since it first debuted on Broadway. So, imagine their excitement when they
learned that the touring company was stopping at our local theater. I knew that tickets would be hard to get, so
I signed up for every early access option that I could find, and I managed to
score four tickets to the show. Yay, Mom!
But, here’s the thing…
While I love Broadway shows, I really wasn’t super interested in seeing
Hamilton. I had heard a lot about it. I had listened to the hype. I had read about the political divisiveness that
had been on display at some of the shows.
I knew that the musical style was not something that I generally
preferred. So, I put on my “good mom”
hat and went to the show yesterday with really low expectations.
Fast forward to this afternoon…. I’m not sure that I’ve ever
had such a drastic and immediate change of heart as I did when I saw “Hamilton.” I was absolutely blown away by the show. It was far and away the best Broadway show
that I’ve ever seen – and I’ve seen quite a few. Where I expected to find revisionist history,
I found an accurate retelling of the story of the birth of our nation. Where I expected my ears to be offended by
the hip hop music, I found an amazing breadth and depth of musical styles that
perfectly fit the story that was being told.
While I expected an overt political message, I found a thoughtful
presentation that simply encouraged the audience to think about today’s political
issues in light of the past. The show
left me in tears, and I almost never cry at movies or plays.
I’m still thinking about the show this afternoon – not only
revisiting the story and the songs and the images, but also examining my heart
and asking some hard questions of myself.
How often do I approach someone or something with a set of preconceived
notions? How often do I approach a
conversation with “low expectations?” How
often do I put up walls because I think that I know what someone or something
is all about? What am I missing as a result
of passing judgment before taking time to fully engage and understand?
I’d like to think that I don’t do those things, but I know
that I do to some extent. All of us
do. But, what if we were willing to open
our hearts and our minds – and what if we were willing to take down the walls….
What if we were willing to observe and listen and learn and let our guard
down? We might be surprised to find that
our expectations are completely blown away and replaced with something new and
better.
A wise woman once said, “If
we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit that sometimes our assumptions
and preconceived notions are wrong, and therefore, our interpretation of events
is incorrect. This causes us to overreact,
to take things personally, or to judge people unfairly.”
“Hamilton” has inspired me to do my best to approach the
world without any preconceived expectations (and to read the biographies of
Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr!).
