Tears of Artistic Sensitivity

This afternoon, Ian was humming "The Nutcracker Suite" - a piece that the pianist played between acts, or in the introduction to one of the acts, in his Christmas play last weekend, and he mentioned that it seemed familiar, and wanted to know what it was.

I told him it was "The Nutcracker." He wanted to know what The Nutcracker was, so I explained about the ballet, and told him the story. [He eventually recognized the story from one of his children's books, and started recounting to me about how the Nutcracker turned into a real nutrckacer-soldier and he and the other nutcracker-soldiers fought some mice, and when the little girl woke up, the nutcracker wasn't broken any more... All right on target, as usual. ]

So I explained that there's a whole ballet where that story came from, and told him and Daniel that, when I saw The Nutcracker Ballet for the first time on a real stage (Boston Ballet), it was so beautiful that I cried. [Yes, I guess I'm a girly-man... :) ]They were both puzzled as to why someone would cry when they saw something beautiful.

Suddenly, Ian recognized the concept from personal experience:

"I cried from watching Herbie, but that was before I knew about Benji."

Then Daniel chimed in: "I cried for the Wiggles."

I wasn't at all surprised that Ian cried from watching Herbie -I've seen him grow all misty-eyed, bursting with pride as he watched a hippie VW Beetle outsmart all the bad guys of the world, and I know he once said that he thought if Herbie were real, he'd probably be his best friend.

But the idea of Daniel waxing weepy before The Wiggles rather blew my mind. I know he loves The Wiggles, but Daniel simply doesn't seem to have the refined sensibilities of his older brother - not even for those four wacky Australian singers...

Right on queue, Ian asserted that Daniel never actually cried for The Wiggles. At that point, Daniel went on to explain that he had cried because he couldn't watch them, at some moment in the past. Nobody had the slightest trouble believing that.

Ian then clarified that crying because you're sad is not the same thing.

(January 18, 2010)