No Day But Today: I can't believe a year went by so fast...
Last year I was in a show called And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank... a play about the Holocaust. I did not have a significant role... except that I play a young Jewish child, torn from her mother's arms and sent to the gas chambers upon arriving at Auchwitz. And last night, we had the dress rehearsal for this year's show, The Triangle Factory Fire Project, about the fire at the Triangle Waistshirt Factory in the Asch on the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place in New York City. I'm not even in it--I do the lights, behind the scenes. 146 people died in less than half an hour in that fire, many of them young immigrant girls (lots of Jews, again). And tonight we open. And given today's date, given where I've just been, given what just this small high school play has done to a tiny audience, how many people, percentage-wise have cried... I'd like to say this.
Six and a half decades ago today, Jews and Gypsies and thousands of others died.
Ten years ago tomorrow Rent opened in New York City.
Ten years ago today, Jonathon Larson died too young.
Tonight, I will light a candle in my window. This year I have a fresh one to burn for Larson, but I didn't have one. All I had was the used one. In retrospect, this saddens me a little because something occurred to me last year. He wouldn't want to have something special just for him, but something every day, something used, something that had seen wear and tear before. It's not about being special. It's about being a part of the human race. When I lit that candle, it wasn't just for him. It was for all of us. That candle might not burn as long, but it will burn, and that's what matters.
This year, because I haven't lit candles in a while, I have a new one. But this year, because dorms are stupid and won't let you light candles, I'm lighting one for the best friend I have as well. And I think that, this is good, in a way--giving it back something despite the new candles, giving a sense of community back to it. And two candles will burn more brightly and lend each other strength--as we who mean to survive this world must do as well.
Please, for the sake of every victim, every person who has given to the world in some way, just for tonight, be quiet, remember, grieve, and try to think of how to work for a better world. And, in the memory of those who have died too young, the children, the artists, the victims of war and AIDS and drugs and catastrophes, the heroes, please, tonight...
Light a candle.