Monday, April 17, 2006

"My father is a bastard,
My ma's an S.O.B.
My grandpa's always plastered,
My grandma pushes tea.
My sister wears a mustache,
My brother wears a dress.
Goodness gracious, that's why I'm a mess!"
- Gee, Officer Krupke from West Side Story

Watched West Side Story on Saturday. The Jets reminded me so much of some people it was almost eerie. If you've watched the show you might know what I'm talking about; if you don't, lucky you.

And it really got me thinking: what's up with these people? Could it be that, like in that song, they're "depraved because they're deprived?" Are they just misunderstood? Or are they really just selfish assholes so bent on enjoying their own brand of fun that they couldn't care less about who they hurt in the process?

And how does forgiveness factor into all this? Anita forgives, but how is she rewarded? She gets gangraped by the Jets, the same people she forgave for killing the love of her life and tried to help. Depressing yet true, sometimes it really doesn't pay to be kind.

Yet on the other hand, if we don't forgive, where does it end? Bernardo killed Riff, so Tony killed Bernardo, so Chino killed Tony and everyone ends up dead. "I can kill now, because I hate now." That's all that comes out of it I guess. Hate, begetting more hate. A lot of people were wondering why Maria didn't carry out her threat and just kill everyone. Was she too weak? Did she chicken out? Did she not love Tony enough? I prefer to think that she was the only person there (besides Anita maybe, before she was pushed over the edge) who knew what love meant. Love means keeping the faith, not giving up, hanging on and perhaps even forgiving, when it seems almost impossible to. In the end, she chose love over hate, even though it was so easy to just be consumed by hate, and I appluad her for it.

-- tee @ 2:15 pm |