Sunday, June 24, 2007

I Still Believe

I was reading Robert Olen Butler's book and he spoke about how all great art captures the yearning we all feel. He said if you haven't successfully captured this great yearning, your work has failed.

I was listening to I Still Believe from Miss Saigon and got caught up with the yearning in her voice. There was a connection and whoosh, I was swept away.

The great yearning we hide deep inside, the one we never expose to the unforgiving light of day or the mockery of the sensible ones, the ones we cover with a haze of depression, a blanket of negativity.

The kind of yearning Yeats was talking about when he said:

I have laid my dreams under your feet,
tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.


And still, the sweet longing bleeds out of her voice and I want to take her gently by the hand and tell her: "...let go of the dream, let go, let go, let go."

Because you will anyhow.

Eventually.

5 comments:

Jenn said...

Ling, I can't get to your blog again!

Anonymous said...

it got deleted. i'm hoping it's a system malfunction, versus some malicious hack.

another ling incarnation forthcoming. meanwhile, i lurk. ;p

Erratic Scribbler said...

"Because you will anyhow.

Eventually."

*digging my heels into the ground*

No.

Anonymous said...

I'm with erratic scribbler!

Jenn said...

Ling: Oh boy! I hope recovery is in operation.

ES: You do when they're pipe dreams. And the person aint never coming back however much you wish.

Jackie: Ditto