A little diversion...

To one&all,

Well, I'm back. I hope you all enjoyed christmas, those of you who celebrate it. Anyway, tonight I'll try something a little bit different than what i usually do. Usually, I elaborate on big collective issues, but tonight I'm going to talk about a small, somewhat ordinary thing that happened. I'm going out on a limb here, and I'm debating whether or not to do this post, but as John Wayne once said, "Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway." So I'm going to take this chance.

Anyway, earlier tonight I saw West Side Story, which I hadn't seen in practically forever. Usually, movies like this aren't my cup of tea, but I'm staying with relatives of mine, so I figured may as well. Anyway, you may have seen it yourself, so there's probably no need for me to rehash all the details here. For those who haven't, I'll give you just a brief primer on the basic structure.

In, well, the west side of Manhattan, these two rival gangs of white kids on one side(the Jets), puerto ricans on the other(the sharks), are constantly at each other's throats. One of the white kids, Tony, meets Maria, a girl from Puerto Rico and the sharks' leader's sister, and they fall passionately in love. This as the jets and the sharks prepare to settle their troubles once and for all with an all-out brawl.

Anyway, Maria implores Tony to put a stop to the whole thing, but in his doing so, things get disastrously out of hand. Knives are drawn, and the sharks' leader kills Tony's best friend, so he loses it and stabs the guy. As he is hunted and troubles escalate, Maria remains committed to Tony. Anyway, long story short, he runs away, and then, when he and Maria find each other again, a bullet from one of the sharks claims his life. Oh, and in between all this, everybody manages to burst out singing on several occassions.

The story is pretty much the same as Romeo&Juliet. The whole thing is really, a dead ringer for Roeo&Juliet.The plot, almost everything.

So, why am I telling you about this? Because the theme is so timeless and is perhaps applicable now. I may be young, but I know a good movie when I see it. The two gangs looking to duke it out once and for all sounds very familiar, like, say, the West and some rogue countries in the east amping up tensions between each other (in the movie they even called their decision on when to brawl the war pact, or something like that). Even though the two gangs agreed to use only fists, both brought blades and all, so the stakes were higher, and the price of the battle was higher. In real life, the issue of nuclear proliferation is right now a spector hanging over the world, and is one of the key issues on the incoming president-elect's to-do list.

Anyway, the ultimate conclusion of the movie brings the two sides together. As Maria breaks down, both gangs realize they are both to blame for what has happened. Their pride, their refusal to give up any of their turf, has cost them their friends.

If I may offer a possible perspective here, it seems that we may all be kids in this Manhattan slum, figuratively speaking. Many of us have our crew that we identify with, be it a country, race or religion. Some of these crews just cannot back down, cannot give an inch of turf to any other group that may be out there. Tempers are flaring, and the means of having it out are getting more and more perilous. Hopefully, those of us in real life will not make the same mistake as our counterparts in West Side Story.

Anyway, that's just a thought. As always, if you have anything you'd like to share please do so. I should be back up with another post soon. See you then. Good night.

This is the Daily Reeder, Over&out.