Our Town ACT IV

As for living in the moment, here is a continuation of Our Town written by Me, with contributions from Lizzie Haroldson, Jessica Powell, Kristine Mawhinney, and Keirnen Hartley. It was for an English assignment, but I thought I might share. Let me know if you like it in the comments, or if you didn't like something.

Our Town

Act IV Scene i

Stage Manager: Now we go to the year 1943. The world has changed immensely in just thirty years. Grover’s Corners has not changed much however, not until the war. The little cemetary up on that hill began to fill with more and more tombstones. nearlly all fo the old inhabitants had gone and passed, all except George Gibbs. Here he comes.

(Enter George with Alice Gibbs. Center stage are two chairs with Emily seated and James Gibbs seated to her side)

Emily: Here they come, James. (James perks up)

Alice: Is this alright papa?

George: This is fine darling.

(Alice sets flowers on both of the graves)

George: It was thirty years ago that your mother passed, and you were born.

Alice: (hurt) I know, papa.

George: Your mother was so sweet

James: They don’t get it, do they?

Emily: Not yet

George: And James, you served your country well.

Alice: (Choked up) Yeah.

George: I should not have been so hard on him for wanting to go.

Alice: It is alright pa.

George: No, it’s not. I should have been better to him. Alice, take care of the people you love before they are lost.

Emily: (Surprised) George……..

George: There is a secret to life, and I figured it out too late, now everything is gone. All but you, this is why you can’t leave Grover’s Corners. I need you here, and I don’t want to lose you.

Alice: But. . .that is unfair.

George: You need to figure this out, us human’s don’t fully understand, but we need to realize where we are and what we are doing.

Alice: Pa, we are here, in the cemetery, mourning Ma and James.

George: yes, but is that all, can we every fully understand the moment, what else is going on?

Alice: Pa, I don’t understand

James: She doesn’t get it.

Emily: No, she doesn’t, I don’t even think George sees life the way we do, not completely.

Alice: Can you understand pa?

George: Not fully, my life has run it’s course, but you must. I tell you, take in the moment, take it all in and don’t let any potential go wasted.

Alice: Father, how. . .why must we do this?

George: To get the most out of life as humans can.

Alice: Why are you calling us Humans?

George: That is what we are.

Alice: Not people? Not Persons?

George: Not to them (looks at Emily and James)

Alice: Who?

George: Emily and James, and Ma and Pa, and even Simon Stimpson.

Alice: Father! They are all dead!

George: Yes, but they get it.

Alice: Get what?!

George: Life

Alice: (loudly) They are Dead!

George: (calmly) Yes they are, but they are still here.

Emily: George, oh George, she will not understand.

George: Emily, she does not understand.

Alice: Stop it Father, She is gone! Let us go.

George: One more moment. . .

(George pauses, taking in the moment)

Lets go.

(George and Alice go away from the cemetery leaving James and Emily.)

James: He is coming?

Emily: Soon.

Stage Manager: As was mentioned before, nobody truly gets the meaning of life. Possibly priests and poets, but none have come closer than George Gibbs has today. The purpose of life, is to explore, to live and to draw closer to each other. This is the quintessence of Life, one that we all must come to a realization of, as we die. This is where I must leave you all, to 1967 where Alice is coming to this realization.

Change.

The world as I see it is ever changing, growing, and expanding. And we live in the world, so I guess it is like us to do the same. I have only lived seventeen years in my lifetime and I hope to live more. But more and more I go through life and notice something:
As you live, things change. Change is something that I have come to hate, and it always leaves you missing the good old days.
"I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days before you have left them. . ."
~Andy, The Office.

But it is true. You never know what you have until it is gone, that is life, and that is change. Life always looks better in retrospect, and that is nostalgia at it's best. 

"Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges of the old days"

~Doug Larson

I find it is good not to rely on the past though. However it is hard when the end of a chapter is near and you can't help but look back and regret things. Things you did, things you didn't do and things done to you. But, I think there is one important thing. I would not give up anything I did in the past. It has made me who I am today, and I am thankful for today. I find that this is the key to change: living now, in the moment. So long as you live in the moment, everything does not matter anymore and then, in that moment:

 "The past is history, the future is a mystery, but today is a gift, that is why it is called a present"
~ Master Oogway, Kung Fu Panda

However life goes on, and Just as:"You never know what you have until it's gone,you never know what you want until you have it."

~Elaine Sheehan

 So we must press forward. To anyone dealing with change, to anyone who wants things to stay as they are:

"Take heart, fair days will shine!"

~The Pirates of Penzance

Seriously, have faith that everything will work out. Things always have a way of working themselves out in the end. God has a plan, he doesn't want any of us to be unhappy. So rejoice and hope for a better future. I believe that life is about the relationships you have with the other people in it. Otherwise life might as well be meaningless. If it was just you in the world, wandering, that would suck. So, get the most out of life as you can. It may hurt along the way, but that is life, working toward a better goal.

NETFLIX PLAYLIST IDEA

I don't know if anybody has ever got this idea, but i think it could be brilliant. Are you ever sick of having to choose an episode of a TV show on Netflix, when really you are just in the mood for any of the episodes, (given that you have seen all of them). There should be a: A random button that chooses it for you at random, but more importantly, there should be a playlist maker. You could make it like real TV. You could throw The Office, Chuck, Psych, and How I Met Your Mother into one big playlist that would randomly jumble all the episodes up like TV. So you may watch an episode of season 3 from The Office, then when it is over it would say: Coming Up Next.......Episode 3, season 2 of Chuck. Then you could either skip it, or watch it. But if you are watching Lost and you need to see that show in order or else it's not fun, you could just simply turn off the random/playlist button. I think this would revolutionize the way people watch streamed media and it would give Netflix a bunch of money plus a new way of watching TV.

What to Expect

So, I just started this blog and here is what to expect. I will probably be posting a lot about my musing on life and stuff like that and maybe recent events depending on how much people actually care about what I have to say. But I will for sure be posting short stories I have written or scripts I am working on. I would love feedback on all of it. We will see how this whole blogging thing goes and if I like it, I will keep it.

Thank you for listening to me:

Jonathon Lauer