our better selves

Hamilton: the man, the musical, and us

Hamilton undoes me, 

and I haven’t even seen it yet,

on one level, there is a story of a man, a life, a dream,

a story tightly interwoven with the story of our country

finding a sense of self that should live,

this story of mostly men, mostly white,

many of them wigged and fearing fresh air,

is of a world I’ve know within the arid air of history books,

my empathy not strong enough to feel it all in my heart,

how wondrous it is that this world

has come alive with music, song, and dance,

all so much more modern than the times portrayed,

and with performers distinctly different in race from the originals,

what astounds me, what moves me deeply,

is that the Platonic ideal of our country’s birthing

can be brought forth by modern folks

who were not explicitly the ones “created equal”

in terms of the Founders’ words,

we needed the world to wake up

to that better self our better angels envision,

and bring Alexander Hamilton’s reality straight through to us,

Hamilton reveals to us what we can be when the way can open,

what an amazing antidote to the poison infecting politics today!

by Henry H. Walker

December 31, ‘18
images courtesy of Google Images