The Music of the Night

Maria YuFebruary 14th, 2007

The music of snow came at night.

It was forecasted to start at 3 AM and cover the whole day today until tomorrow morning at 3.

Last night I felt the coming of snow, but the air was pretty crispy cold and clear.

This morning it’s all whited out and more is flaking down.

Today is Valentine’s day. For some reason the musical, The Phantom of the Opera, came to me.

Christine was a chorus girl at the Opera Populaire, though talented she was not noticed. The Phantom saw her talents and taught her to sing. When the right time came, the Phantom demanded the Opera house to have Christine sing the lead role. She became a star. Raoul was a childhood sweetheart of Christine’s. He rediscovered Christine when she was singing successfully at a show.

The Phantom was a genius composer and musician and lived beneath the Opera house. He wore a white mask to hide his deformed face. He was bad tempered and terrorized people at the Opera house. But he cared for Christine and brought out her talents. He sang to Christine, “Let me be your shelter, let me be your light; All I ask for is one love, one life-time.”

Christine sang to the Phantom, “Angel of music, guide and guardian , grant to me your glory!”

After some chaos events, Raoul was caught by the Phantom and Christine was asked to choose to marry the Phantom or to see Raoul dead.

Christine showed the Phantom her sympathy and kissed him on the forehead. This granted the Phantom a happiness he never thought possible. Touched by Christine’s kindness, the Phantom released Raoul and Christine and let them go.

The musical was an adaptation of the Gastom Leroux novel.

I saw three things in this play.

1. Which love is more true, the love of the Phantom for Christine or the love of Raoul for Christine?
The Phantom saw the gem in Christian when she was not discovered and Raoul re-discovered Christine when she became a prominent singer.

2. The Phantom’s involuntary longing for love.
The Phantom was physically deformed and he hid away from people. He lived in his world of music and did not know about appropriate social manner. He was not “polished”. He did not know how to interact with people but he had the human fundamental desire of being loved.

3. Christine’s sympathy and kindness resolved conflicts.
Just a gentle kiss on the Phantom’s forehead gave him a happiness he never knew.

I felt that Christine’s sympathy and kindness arising from her gratitude for the Phantom, for he saw her inner beauty and helped her develop it.

It started with being appreciated as who one is.

I think deep inside of us we all want to be appreciated for who we are.

An interesting rice experiment is described in Dr. Emoto’s “The Hidden Messages in Water” book. One family put rice in three glass bottles. Every day they said “Thank you” to the first bottle of rice, “You fool” to the second bottle, and they simply ignored the third bottle. The rice in both the second and third bottle rotted, but the rice that was ignored actually rotted before the rice that was exposed to “You fool.” It showed that being ignored was more devastating than being ridiculed.

I have read some seniors go to malls so that they can be around people. Even just the greetings of the shop keepers give them comfort and they feel being noticed.

Our gazes have energies. The act of looking is an act of creating life. A gentle gaze of good intentions gives courage and appreciation. Every one needs to be appreciated but not criticized.

This is my wish for the Valentine’s: May every one be appreciated for she/he is.

It’s alright if the snow keeps falling.

Yellow Over - Pastel painting by Maria Yu