So… I probably have mentioned this before, but I’m a huge theater person. I have eclectic taste, but perhaps because it was Halloween weekend… I had Wicked stuck in my head (you have to amuse yourself somehow when you’re snowed in and without power!)
The first big song of the show always resonated so strongly for me… it’s about waiting for something that might change your life even though you don’t quite know what that entails:
When I meet the Wizard,
Once I prove my worth,
And then I’ll meet the Wizard
What I’ve waited for since,
(Spoken: Since birth!)
And with all his Wizard wisdom,
By my looks, he won’t be blinded
Do you think the Wizard is (Spoken: dumb?)
Or, like Munchkins, so small-minded?
(Spoken: No!) He’ll say to me,
“I see who you truly are –
A girl on whom I can rely!”
And that’s how we’ll begin
The Wizard and I…
Of course, we soon learn that the Wizard has nefarious motives and what appeared to be Elphaba’s big chance is not what she invisioned it would be and leads her on a completely different path, in following her instincts and moral compass instead of succumbing to the allure of fame and influence.
But in a way I feel like there is a certain amount of waiting for that magic Wizard in life with a disability… thinking that this surgery or this therapy or this association will change things in huge way. And who knows, maybe it does? Sometimes it definitely does, but often times it is more murky than that and you have to work and wait for awhile to see the implications of something.
So there is no magic Wizard, either for the green-skinned Elphaba in Wicked or for someone with a condition such as Moebius syndrome. But we learn about ourselves in that search, so perhaps it isn’t futile after all?
Natalie Abbott 