Life Lessons from Hamilton
We’ve been quiet here...
Not for any reason in particular.
There’s been a lot going on, of course, much of it worthy of discussion. But lately it’s felt like there was too much.
Too many opinions about whether to wear a mask.
Too many opinions about Trump & Biden.
Too many opinions about monuments.
Too many opinions about anything and everything relating to COVID-19.
Don’t get me wrong — each of these topics is significant. They warrant thoughtful discussion.
Except lately, everywhere I’ve looked, there’s argument. And most of it doesn’t appear in the form of thoughtful discussion; more like angry yelling. Digging in.
So I took some time away from saying what I personally think, and frankly, I have no business weighing in on some of these topics.
Here’s what I will weigh in on: Hamilton.
I’ll go out on a limb and say that Lin Manuel Miranda is a genius.
And I’ll say that it’s hard to watch Hamilton and not recognize what it says about the world today.
Because what it says is that the world today is that it isn’t that much different than the world 250 years ago.
Fighting & war
Power struggles
Fear mongering
Hubris
Oppression and those who fight it
Oppressors and their fight to maintain control
Political disloyalty and backstabbing
Corruption and blackmail
But also:
Integrity
Support
Perseverance
Love
Compromise
Dedication to cause
Sacrifice
None of this is new. The world can be an ugly place, as we’ve seen far too often this year. But it can also be a place where people come together at the right times to make things better.
The ubiquity of media can easily lead us to believe that we are living in the worst of times. But the reality is that we’re not. In many ways these are the best of times.
250 years ago, COVID-19 would have killed millions of people by now. Life has progressed. It is by no means perfect, and some of that progress may be harmful (Facebook, for example), but sometimes it helps to step back and look at the big picture and remember that for the most part we’ve been down this road before.