"The Opposite of War"

One of my favorite lines is "La Vie Boheme" from the musical Rent by Jonathan Larson. Is goes: "The opposite of war isn't peace, it's CREATION."  I love this line for different reasons at different times. In fact I love the entire song (and musical) in varying degrees at different times. I've thought a lot about why I love this particular line and the conclusion I've come to is: I believe it.

War is conflict, right. Sometimes it's on a grand scale, worldwide. Sometimes it's on a small scale, sibling rivalry. Conflict. Why does conflict arise? There really isn't a single answer to that question. But one reason conflict arises is because of ignorance and intolerance. At times these things are paired, other times they are independent of each other. Either way they are terrifying attributes. The birth of so many conflicts. Bloody, heart wrenching, devastating conflict. Why is peace not the opposite of war? In my mind it's because of what has to happen for true creation. 

Creation, for me, is learning and growing. Creation is expressing the fire inside through various means.  When a person is learning and growing they are widening their scope of the world. They are looking at different people and seeing different things. They absorb new things, internalizing them for use in a future project or conversation or experience. By looking at new things they learn. When a person has a wider scope of the world their eyes are open to so much more.

The word I keep coming back to is differences. The more I learn about other's differences, more specifically WHY they feel the way they do, the less inlined I am to war against them. I can gain tolerance for things I do not understand or agree with when I can put a human face on it. It's easier to see two sides of the same issue when the dialogue is open and it doesn't contain hate. Communication is a powerful tool to avoid conflict. Honest and courteous communication.

For me creation comes from directing a show. I've said before it's about putting a picture together from pieces. It's also about telling a story. Sometimes I tell stories because I want to make people laugh. Sometimes I tell stories to make them cry. Sometimes I tell a story because I want them to understand, and even prescribe to, my way of thinking. I want them to leave my story changed in some small way. I want to teach them something.

I won't go into it in this post. I will only allude to my production of Jesus Christ Superstar. The story I am planning to tell is not to make you cry, or laugh although you may do one or both during the process, but to make you think. I approach it less at the re-telling of the story, but rather an examination of why stories like this happen. Over and over again in history.