Passing The Baton

Last night I was lucky to be able to see "The Mountaintop" by Katori Hall playing at the Bernard Jacobs theater. What I love about live art is that when done right all the assumptions of what you thought it would turn out to be take you on a journey that you didn't even realize was possible.
The play takes place on April 3, 1968 the night before Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis, TN. One of the many themes that stuck out for me was "Live by love, die by hate." Time and time again throughout history men that have dared to change the world and strive to make the world a more loving place are often killed by the opposite force of what they preach. Think. Harvey Milk, Malcolm X, Jesus Christ, John F. Kennedy. I don't need to go on but it's an interesting idea.

Evil for better or worse is just a part of the world and no one person can seem to take it down on alone. In the play Martin Luther King played by Samuel L. Jackson pleads with Carrie Mae played by Angela Bassett to call God and tell her that he's not ready to die. "They won't know what to do with out me" he reasons.  Yet in the end Carrie Mae is able to take MLK to the future and show him all the things that will and have happened.
In the final scene Hall crafts a monologue that is a combination of a motivational speech, lecture and sermon. Which are typically one in the same. As the house lights turn the theater into a church/lecture hall the stage version of MLK let's us know that he is passing the baton and anyone of us in the audience can take the baton and continuing running the race that he ran.

Deeper than that  the play tells that we as humans are all afraid.

"Fear is the only thing that we have in common."

Nowhere in my life has this thought been more appropriate. With the right and left fighting to defend their position and staying stubborn willing to compromise. I believe it is only because of fear.
The one thing that gives me solace is that I know one way or another all will balance itself out. For better or worse, I think that the closing of big retailers such as Circuit City, Borders, and Barnes and Nobles can have positive results in the long run. Much like before technology reigned supreme people relied on word of mouth and referrals for decisions. Now with so much content and products being created people are relying more and more on friends and family for keeping up with what's relevant and not just trusting what big business puts on shelves at discounted prices. For the sake of not trying to sound like an economist I will end my theory there and hope you will take my word and go see "The Mountaintop"