If you recall, we didn’t give our kids any experience gifts for Christmas because we weren’t sure what was coming and what they would be interested in attending. The last couple of years have been so wonky that we didn't want to make any promises we couldn't keep. We had more than enough of that in 2020. We have, however, been watching for options.
Several months ago, Matthew told me that he’d like to see “Shen Yun” sometime. About five years ago, I took Daniel and Nathan to see this New York based Chinese Dance Academy perform and they loved it. I didn’t know it at the time, but apparently Matthew was jealous. Shen Yun didn’t tour in 2020 and I don’t think they toured last year either, but this year they came and luckily for us, there were still plenty of tickets available when I started looking in January. I figured Malia was old enough now to, so I purchased three tickets.
This afternoon was our outing, and it was a nice break from the hard week we’ve been having. For several hours we got to sit back and enjoy the lovely, fluid traditional dances of the Chinese people. Matthew was paying attention to the tech as well as the performance (a side effect of being on the stage crew) and was excited by their use of stage fog. He was also impressed by how flowing the dance style is, gracefully moving from one step to the next with no abrupt stops and starts in movement. Malia loved the flowing skirts and sleeves of the costumes and was highly amused by the story of the monkey king that they portrayed.
I loved all those things as well, but what really caught my attention was the over arcing story they told of the divine creator in the heavens who foretells a great calamity for the earth and asks the other divine beings, “Who will go to the earth with me to renew all things in the end times?” That scene was how the show started and after walking through five thousand years of culture, the modern day was shown. The focus was on students of three highly held Chinese virtues of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. The students were tormented by gangs and thieves and then the great calamity occurs in the shape of an earthquake and a giant tidal wave. That is when the divine creator appeared and saved the students of virtue. Sound familiar at all? It is always interesting to me to see how there are bits and pieces of truth to be found in so many cultures and religions.
As I mentioned before, we have had a rough week here. It has been long, so long, and we are all feeling weighed down and weary. (You would think that the adversary knows that we sent a missionary to the MTC this week or something…) So spending several hours immersed in music and beautifully choreographed and costumed dancing was a bit of a balm to mind and heart.
