Last Sunday afternoon, we took our red-haired grand-kids, the Daltons, to the Jacksonville Symphony Family Series, featuring The Sneetches. There was a pre-concert Orchestra Zoo with dozens of kids standing in lines to bang on, blow into, or saw the strings of grown-up instruments.
- Patrick & French Horn at the Orchestra Zoo
Jenna & Tuba at the Instrument Zoo
During the concert, the conductor asked each section of the orchestra to play a segment of a piece separately to let the kids hear the true sounds of the various instruments.Then came the pictorial story of the Sneetches animated on screen and read by a narrator, all accompanied by the whimsical strings, the complaining woodwinds, and the booming drums in Jacoby Symphony Hall.
If you need a brush-up on the Dr. Seuss plot line, two camps of yellow, fantastical creatures called Sneetches are separated by whether or not they have stars tattooed on their bellies. The Star-Belly Sneetches think they are best and make their Plain-Belly counterparts feel sad and inferior. Magically, Sylvester McMonkey McBean comes along with his Star-on and Star-off machines. Now the Plain-Bellies are thrilled because they match the elite. But the original Star Bellies are angry because they no longer stand out as special. Now no one is happy.
Between the Star Bellies and the Plain-Bellies there is plenty of bad feeling to go around. Then the conniving Star Bellies hatch an idea: Let’s get Sylvester McMonkey McBean to remove all the stars from bellies. Determined to find a solution, money from both belly camps gets stuffed into McBeans’ pockets, and he leaves town a rich monkey. Poorer in pocket, but richer in understanding, none of the Sneetches can remember who was what originally now that they all look the same. Finally, there is a level playing field.
The Sneetches’ conclusion: It doesn’t really matter what they look like—they can all be friends, stars or no stars. As the story ends, conviviality reigns.
In the car on the way home:
Jenna: “I really liked it! Those Sneetches were really cool, and they all liked each other at the end.”
Patrick: “It doesn’t matter what you look like. Everyone is the same. Oh, and there’s another thing: Don’t give away all your money away for a dumb reason.”
Grandpa: “You are special whether you have a star on your belly or not.”
First of all, I wouldn’t want a star on my belly, would you? I wouldn’t want to draw attention to my worst feature whether it looked cool or not.
If you are human, you probably are a Sneetch, prone to some of the dark emotions these yellow bellies felt: feelings of inferiority, pride, dis-content, fear, frustration, and envy.
You may or may not agree with Alex Daydream (that has to be a pseudonym!) who claims that no emotion is strictly good or bad.
No Emotion Is Strictly Good Or Bad
Anger clouds our judgement
Love can make us blind
If emotions are so ruinous
What good one can I find?Empathy makes us better people
Pain brings us back always stronger
Sadness gives way to happiness
Meaning a better life lived longer.
I love the Sneetch story, and this was a truly creative way to combine music, story, and family togetherness.
Thinking about your last sentence. I don\’t recall being discouraged from showing emotion. I do recall learning not to show my desire on my face when I raised my hand in school. In first grade, I thought contorted expressions and exaggerated hand motions would result in getting picked. 🙂 When that didn\’t work, I learned my first lesson in subtlety.
On hand raising–I raised my hand as often as I could in grade school through high school. I don\’t remember contorted expressions though. One thing I do remember is NOT raising my hand in my college classes because I didn\’t want the guys to think I was too nerdy. It didn\’t work!
I wonder if college women these days consider subtlety when they want to respond. I rather doubt it.
Again, thanks for your insights and eagerness to post, Shirley.
Emotions can help us connect to others or destroy a relationship if they aren\’t properly expressed. Maturity is learning how to balance the two.
I see you have your \”psychologist\” hat on. As a teacher, you have experiences with the whole gamut, I\’m sure. Why is it so easy to get out of whack, as my Grandma would say!
Due to our recent involuntary \”digital detox,\” I\’m days late, but not a dollar short! I remember how much our son Eoghan (everyone calls him \”Evan\”) loved The Sneetches:
\”Now, the Star-Bell Sneetches had bellies with stars. The Plain-Belly Sneetches had none upon thars.\”
And while I don\’t wear my heart on my sleeve, I definitely share my emotions if they\’re positive, uplifting, constructive, and healing.
You always see the glass has half full, even during the digital detox, Laurie. I\’m glad to see you are back stronger than ever. Thanks for your comment about \”Evan\” and his love of the Sneetches. Dr. Seuss was ever present when our kids were little too.