#39 - Hamilton Lessons

As I was driving home from my sister Amy's house last night she called to check on me and thank me for spending the holiday with them and specifically for entertaining my nephew Keaton while she and Matthew (BIL) got things done around the house.  Amy said my "babysitting" should count as one of my act of kindness.  I laughed and told her it doesn't count because it can't be kindness if you expect something in return, and I expect Keaton to visit me in the retirement home someday.  As I continued my drive I listened to some of my favorite songs from Hamilton and a few things struck me...

1.  Eliza and Alexander have a special relationship that touches me.  After their first son is killed in a duel they move uptown and "It's Quiet Uptown".  This song brings on ugly crying every single time I listen to it.  Alexander tells her that if he could trade his life for their son's he would.  Their son would stand there in his place and his wife would smile, and that would be enough.  The idea of what is "enough" has stuck with me.  Maybe entertaining Keaton is an act of kindness, because I don't expect anything at all in return - just being near him for that moment is enough.  I was happy to do it and it was my favorite part of the entire holiday, so it seems silly to count it as an act of kindness, but if it made life easier for my sister even for a minute, I'll take it.  In my eyes, Keaton is always enough.

2.  In that same song, we deal with the fact that Alexander has had an affair and written a brochure to explain himself to the world thereby saving himself but sinking his marriage.  Eliza is understandably devastated by all this and it only gets worse when her son dies.  By the end of the song she takes Alexander's hand and we get "forgiveness... can you imagine?"  A love that deep and sincere is the stuff of Hallmark movies, but it happened.  Eliza loved Alexander so much that she forgave him and then later told his story (more on that to come).  Forgiveness is such a gift to Eliza.  It allowed her to move forward.  There has been a handful of people in my life who hurt me in a way that has made it hard for me to truly forgive.  I'm still working on it, but I'm committed to forgiving all as a kindness to myself.

3.  Hamilton ends with "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story" and I'm not sure any show has ever ended so well.  So much greatness packed into it and we finally really recognize that Eliza is the hero of the show.  She loves so deeply and solidifies the legacy her husband spent his entire life trying to make for himself.  We find out what Eliza does for the 50 years after Alexander dies and it is absolutely heart clenching goodness that, again, has me balling every time.  There's a line in the song about her sister Angelica that hit me last night - "when I needed her most, she was right on time."  Doesn't that epitomize a sisters' relationship?  When everything falls apart and you're in desperate need a sister will show up every time - right on time.  This is more of a promise than an act of kindness, but I will forever strive to be what Amy needs when she needs it. 

So I'm counting the combined lessons of Hamilton as my 39th act of kindness for the year.  One of the most challenging parts of this has been deciding which ones to "count" and which ones go by without a blog entry.  I'm not sure these should have made the list, but they were all on my heart and that seemed like reason enough to give them a space on the countdown.  If you haven't listened all the way through Hamilton, give yourself that gift.  It's changed the way I think about a lot of things in my world.