Unresolved.

Last night I had the lovely privilege to take in a play at the Manitoba Theater Center. Orpheus Descending by Tennessee Williams. I have to say that it was completely and totally brilliant. The stage design, the lighting, the costuming, and the acting was amazing. Though I had read some of Tennessee Williams plays, I had never read or even heard of Orpheus Descending.

The play focused a lot on the theme of death. Death seemed to be everywhere in this play. The leading lady's husband was on his death bed, her father had been murdered long ago, even the child she once carried was killed through abortion. Even though the play did show death a lot, it was not about death. It was about life. It was the raw human struggle between darkness and light. To stare at death, whether physical or emotional, and declare, "No! This is life. This will not be the end, I will not have it. I will live! I want death to hear me living as it comes for me."

What I think I loved most about the play was that it was passionate, messy, and it did not resolve. There was no happy ending. As I left the theater, descending the gray balcony steps, I didn't know how I was supposed to feel...and I loved it. I loved it because this play seemed to be a grand metaphor for my life. It's passionate, messy, and it doesn't resolve. Life doesn't have clean cut edges. Life doesn't fit into a box. And neither does my experience here at Prov. I want to have clean cut beginnings and ends. I want lessons all wrapped up in neat little packages. But that's not what this experience is like; it's messy and it doesn't resolve. That was the beauty of the play, and that is the beauty of my Providence existence.