Poetry & Blindfolds

I am hosting the readthrough of “The Observatory” tonight and, in preparation, I wanted to jot down a couple of notes with which I could introduce the “mind” of the piece.  These notes conspired to become a full presetnation, which, because I like the thoughts contained, I offer below:

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A strong case and a relatively weak song can be made for the cliché “there’s a thin line between love and hate.”  A stronger case – and yet, due to its complexities, no songs – can be made for the barely discernable line between right and wrong.

I put it to the artists, audience and world that what determines right and wrong is not a manufactured or created morality but rather a clock.  Time will tell an intelligent person when murder is righteous and when it is an abomination.  Time will inform the individual who sleeps with someone other than their spouse whether such an act is a massive error of judgment or a miracle of an awakened and passionate heart.

Time will pass judgment on a nation obsessed with domination, invading countless other, smaller nations, killing millions and rendering the survivors as little more than free and fully expendable labor.  Indeed, time has already told you, personally, whether the nation I just described was Nazi Germany or America.

Thus, it is merely our perception that determines right and wrong.  These determinations become part of our memory, collectively and individually.  Who doesn’t remember the phrase ‘all men are created equal’?  Who remembers with the same gusto that male African Americans were deemed to be 3/5^th of a man (presumably, black women fared worse than this)?  Who doesn’t think of the Pledge of Allegiance with some reverence?  Yet, in that same mental breath, who recalls the Pledge was written by Francis Bellamy, a socialist, for a newspaper designed to sell American flags to schools? 

Half of our history in this nation had slavery.  Three-quarters had active and public discrimination.  Two-thirds were populated by women who could not vote.  Who remembers this as part of their own perception of America?

With ‘The Observatory’, I try and eradicate the tiny line between good and bad and, as a result, go a long way towards erasing the line between the dynamic duo of most plays: the protagonist and antagonist.  Either of the leads in this play could be either, and indeed they are both.  It all depends on how you define right and wrong.  Hopefully, this will at least fit your definition of entertainment.