The Family that Views Together, Talks Together

When I was in my teens there was a saying that was repeated in all of the religious circles:  the family that prays together, stays together.  I was thinking about that theme ... families doing things together, and I especially wondering if my kids are taking their kids to cultural events.  In the back of my head is always the theme, the family that views together, talks together.  Of course I believe that anything the failmy does together is good.  A public lecture, church, going to a movie, viewing TV together, time at the park or in the swimming pool ... all good.

So I asked Mary how the dialogue went after she took her children to see the NT Live Beyond the Beautiful Forever.

Mary said:

We talked about the final scene – the themes of hope and despair, how he was willing to take the risk of jumping for the possibility of the wealth of garbage, and how at the same time his despair made it possible to jump because he wasn’t afraid to die because he had little to live for. That’s pretty complicated stuff.   

I talked with Naomi about corruption in “the system” and why the girl who had been given an education might not want to participate in a scheme that would actually prevent others from getting an education. Hard stuff. Naomi was pretty creeped out about the woman who burned herself and then died. 

Though I know the stories of the play happen all the time in communities around the world, the fact that the author of the book spent three years in the shanty town and wrote down the actual stories of the people she met using their own words made it so much more raw for me.

Mary also told me that before they got there, Xavier asked if he and Naomi would be the youngest people there again.  And yes indeed, they were.

Arta