Rattling in My Mind

Nearly every day I have an idea for a post. Most often, it is one of the kind that is in disbelief about our national dialogue and leadership.

Today, for instance, I woke with the idea of a “Do what I say, not what I do or what you think you see” theme. How easy right? See this picture of white South African mass graves (what do you mean it’s a picture of humanitarian workers burying after war in another country….its what I say that matters). Hey, what’s wrong with a FREE new airplane (that needs almost half a billion dollars to retrofit) that I get to keep after I am done!

Then, I remind myself, I am an arts administrator. Our culture is supposed to be my metier. What the hell is going on with our culture? Why do I always have a politically centered blog idea?

I have spent nearly two weeks in New York seeing Broadway shows to meet my Tony voting obligations (you have to see everything to be able to vote). From the remarkable range and quality of what is on stage (Buena Vista Social Club, Purpose, Almost Happy Ending, Redwood, Gypsy, Good Night and Good Luck, Yellow Face, Real Women Have Curves among others), you would think American culture is vibrant, inclusive and kinda fun.

But at every show and event, the chatter in the seats and in the lobby is a mix of awe for what we are immediately experiencing and shock at what we will feel when we leave the theater bubble. Each of the shows I have mentioned and many more do not reflect our national leadership’s agenda or desires and we in the audience know it.

We are feeling the kind of “almost escapism” masterfully built into the musical Cabaret. The Nazis were taking over, but, “Come to the Cabaret.” I say almost, because, in fact, like in Cabaret, it is far from escapism: we are in a time that even commercial art wants to stick a finger up to deportations, walls, fear mongering, anti-science and grift. But, oh so delicately wrapped in beauty and excellence and easily ignored if you so choose.

All this has sat oddly with me. So oddly it has, until now, stopped me from posting for nearly a month. I am an arts administrator and I see our national dialogue through what I know….and what I know is that enormous parts of our country are seething (isn’t that a great word…see-thing)! Some of my peers in more conservative parts of the country know they cannot bring certain shows to their communities and the cultural world’s reaction to the takeover of the Kennedy Center represents the most public display of that reality.

So, what of the rest of us? What of my daily work? Go along to get along, or regularly, but subtly, raise a finger? Is my obligation just to observe, to join, or to scream?