aud’acious

I identify with the musical, South Pacific.  Before you roll your eyes, hear me out.

I grew up on an island in the Pacific until I was 10.  My first memories of life are on this Japanese island surrounded with American servicemen.  We swam every day at the pool with a bunch of GIs.  Like in Utah you know where you are based on the mountains, it was like that in Okinawa.  We based directions on the ocean.  When my dad took us camping we camped on the semi-tropical beaches and when he took us flying he flew us over ocean crashing on the cliffs.  He quized us on the names of the American fighter planes that took off from the nearby air base.  I actually won 13th place in a nationally writing competition of 17,000 entries writing about my life there as a child.  It’s called “Japanese Carp”.  To read it click here.

To me as a child, South Pacific resembled my life so the messages in the movie were bound to touch me.  In the late 50’s and early 60’s when these musicals originally came out, Rogers and Hamerstein used the music to discuss the controversial issues of the day.  I remember hearing  “Carefully Taught”, a song that forced me to re-think my beliefs about race.  “A Cockeyed Optimist” is what I want to be.  “There is Nothing Like a Dame”, I completely agree. 

If you haven’t listened to the music or watched it lately, you should.  I just did today.