Theatrical reminder of how to discover the extraordinary in our ordinary lives

LAST week, for the first time in more than two years I went to a London theatre. Actually, this was the first trip to a theatre anywhere for a long time. I saw Pippin a 1970s musical written by Stephen Schwarz, better known for Godspell and Wicked.

The story tells of the eldest son of King Charlemagne, head of the Holy Roman Empire, and his search for purpose and meaning in life. In a series of dramatic episodes, with accompanying songs, he considers status, use of power and simply living a self-centred and pleasure-filled life as a means to fulfilment. In the process he finds, unsurprisingly, that nothing quite satisfies. His search echoes that of the writer of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament, who goes through a similar journey and concludes that it is all “vanity” and that there is “nothing new under the sun”.

As the play continues Pippin meets a widow and works on her farm where he becomes an invaluable aid to the daily routine and a surrogate father to the widow’s young son. It appears that he has found his place in life. However, he resists this, unwilling to settle for the humdrum of daily routine and always longing for something more.

Ultimately, he recognises that committing himself to loving and supporting this family he has become part of is his role in life and that true satisfaction will always, at some level, require compromise.

Had I seen this play as a student forty years ago I suspect I would have thought Pippin had sold out and that we should always pursue our dreams. Decades later I am conscious of how my thinking has changed. While resisting the notion that most of us live lives of quiet desperation I am conscious that, generally, our lives are rooted in the everyday and, often, mundane.

Jesus taught his followers that the Kingdom of God was not out there somewhere waiting to be discovered but is here and now amongst us waiting to be experienced. Like Pippin maybe we need to learn how to discover the extraordinary in our ordinary lives.

> Malc Halliday is a retired Baptist Minister - weekendthought@aol.com