Léna is also a Regional Manager for Writopia Lab whose mission is to foster joy, literacy, and critical thinking in kids and teens from all backgrounds through creative writing.

"Well, the question is, what do you want to believe? Do you want to live in a world where things are possible, or in one where they aren't?" Cin, Edges.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Wrinkles in Time and the Lunar Eclipse

Lunar EclipseImage via Wikipedia
The full moon sure is purty tonight. Full moon AND a lunar eclipse I hear, starting at 3:17AM in New York. AND it's winter solstice.

AND I just saw a fantastic production of A Wrinkle in Time at The Round House Theater in Washington D.C.

Is this all a coincidence?

As many of you know, I have been struggling with how best to honor my wonderful grandmother, and yet retain my own sense of self, my own voice. I am not trying to ride on her career, I want to have my own, yet at the same time I can't deny the profound influence she has had on me.

My dear friend Katherine and I moved from the same building in NYC at the same time almost 6 months ago - I to Northern Westchester, and she to the suburbs of D.C. Our daughters are bosom buddies. Katherine was offered the position as Grants Manager at the Round House Theater this fall and when she found out that they were producing Wrinkle, she immediately started lobbying for me to come down. She leaned on me in such a disarmingly charming way that after several weeks, even though Edges was just coming out and Christmas was only a week away, even though D.C. is a 6 hour drive, I was able to commit to a matinee on Sunday the 19th. She then lobbied Round House to invite me to do a "talk back" after the show, and after that wrote to me saying that Round House would also like to sell copies of Edges. Wow! "Now I've made it so you really can't back out," she joked.

I was terrified of being a disappointment. Who would care enough to stay for the talk back, never mind buying a book, my book? Fortunately, the play was captivating enough to energize me and get me out of myself. A trimmed down version yes, but for the stage, and John Glore's choices for dialogue and "showing" character was phenomenal. I was worried about Meg - because Meg's faults carry the story - for me. Meg is the character I identified with forever, whose example showed me that I could be, and was, loved, warts and all. Meg could have been played as whiny, and that would have been wrong. But Erin Weaver didn't do that.  She embodied Meg's anger, frustration and spunk perfectly.  We rooted for Calvin to kiss her at the end, and we believed that he saw her awesomeness.

And that's what I hope for, for all of us. That our loved ones will still see the best in us, even when we are at our worst and most insecure. That our own darkness won't totally eclipse us, that we will have the strength to tesser even-though-it-is-terrifying, to find our own light, and to be able to celebrate the darkest day of the year on solstice because we know that the days will start to lengthen again, that we will thaw and new life will grow.

Time was wrinkled for me during that performance, and I was thrown back to being the girl who identified with Meg (except for the math part) tall, awkward, bespectacled and yes, braces graced my teeth.  I thought about how Gran was always a combination of Mrs. Whatsit and Aunt Beast to me, and I was able to get up onstage after the show where people did indeed stay to ask questions, and some also stayed to check out Edges as well - including Erin Weaver and Jake Land, the actor playing Charles Wallace!

I could write so much more about the production - and maybe I will - tomorrow. I am incredibly wiped out after a whirlwind two weeks since the release of Edges and I must confess that I haven't been sleeping very well amidst all of the excitement. So no, I am NOT staying up to witness the lunar eclipse, although it wouldn't surprise me if my Gran whispered in my ear at 3AM waking me up to wrap myself in a blanket, make two mugs of hot cocoa, and sit on the deck and wait.

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8 comments:

  1. This post brought tears to my eyes. Beautiful, Lena!

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  2. Thank you Alison! There's always so much to write!

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  3. Léna, may I quote a paragraph from this post in my blog?
    Blessings, Laurel

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  6. Grandmother's are like our best friends, it's very touching to know how to honor your grandma in the best way that you know. Just like the things that I read from A-writer.com, Lunar eclipse is such a fascinating event that we should treasure.

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