How Do You Solve a Problem like the Sound of Music?

As an only child who can carry a tune, I always loved the Sound of Music. The Von Trapps were livin’ the dream. Forging every stream. But think about it, a big old singing family. When I have my own big old singing family, I hope my kids can learn the valuable life lessons this worn out VHS has taught me:

Remember kids, “when you read you begin with A-B-C, when you sing you begin with Do-Rae-Me.” Now I have learned a lot of things in my life, but what am I still always doing? Reading and singing. Thanks Maria.

And, what do you do “when the dog bites, when the bee stings, or when you’re feeling sad?” Simply remember your favorite things, “and then it won’t feel so bad.” Mr. Woody Allen seems to agree with this. (See the second-to-last scene in Manhattan).

Then there’s the ultimate adage. The foundation of the entire film. The song for the lovers, the dreamers, and me. “Climb Every Mountain.” You remember the emotional ending. The hills—alive with 1960’s cinematography. The score that brings a tear to your eye and a goosebump to your arm. The happiest of happy endings. To a ten-year-old.

But to a college graduate sitting in a tiny apartment eating Chinese takeout, the scene looks different. Bleaker. But the scene does warrant a break in the waves of my channel surfing. I never could pass up this movie. As I sat there, watching good triumph over evil yet again, it occurred to me: My God, what if the Von Trapps are not ok? I mean sure they escaped this time. But that’s a big-ass mountain and there are Nazi’s out there. What’s worse is they will always be running away; with—mind you—nothing but a song and a dream. I guess it worked for the American Idols, but really?

So I guess The Sound of Music continues to teach me, even at 23. There is a fine line between chasing dreams and running away. Is there even a winner in that race? Does chasing your dreams always lead you away from home? Perhaps Maria should take a cue from Dorothy.

Ouch. Now that I think about it, an equally currently-depressing-once-childhood-favorite. Tonight in my own personal philosophical black hole, these are the only conclusions I can see: The yellow brick road might not lead to Oz, and the other side of the Swiss mountains may not be safe and free.

Apparently MGM and 20th Century Fox seem to be under the impression that at the end of a rainbow, a person finds everything they ever wanted. Just “follow every rainbow ‘til you find your dream,” or that “land, that you heard of once in a lullaby", is where? “Somewhere over the rainbow.”

What they never tell you is how you get through all that rain. Cue Mary Poppins.
Now there is a character I’d like to be. Think about it, she comes into people’s lives, sings a few songs, invents a truly quotable word, and then disappears without so much as an “adieu, adieu, to you and you and you.”

A tough pill to swallow, and unfortunately there isn’t a spoon full of sugar big enough to help that medicine go down.

So, perhaps there really is no place like home, and that’s too bad for me. And it’s too bad for Maria and Mary who were both forced to run away from their homes. And poor Dorothy, hers got swallowed up by the Kansas sky.