Another Day in Paradise

This Sunday I get to watch my three girls perform at their annual dance recital. It is a day, every year, that I have come to love.

I enjoy watching my girls dance. My oldest, Rachel, has been en pointe (sp?) for over a year, and she is doing some things that - at least to my amatuer eye - are very impressive. And my two smaller girls are, well, just really cute no matter what they do. Its also neat to watch the performances of other kids that I know, a lot of whom are Rachel's peers at Highland. There is a unique joy that comes from discovering that someone you know has a talent that you had never known about.

My little ones will be performing a dance based on Madonna's Material Girl. Despite its hedonistic themes, this one - complete with elaborate "dress-up" costumes - is sure to score a 10 out of 10 on the cuteness scale. (I'm only hoping that neither of my little ones will think to ask what it means when Madonna sings "experience has made me rich/and now they're after me"!)

Rachel, on the other hand, will be in three different performances, one of which will be based on Phil Collins' Another Day in Paradise. I got a chance to see this one while it was still a work in progress a few weeks ago. Rachel and her classmates will be dressed in costumes that resemble the clothing of homeless people (cost: $65 - take a moment to savor the irony), and they will be using shopping carts as props. The performance beautifully supports Collins' lyrics, which force the listener to take a harder look at the plight of the homeless.

The arts are so important in emerging culture, and the Collins piece is a great example of how they could be used in the Kingdom to convey a message by means other than words. I'd love for my girls to some day be a part of those kinds of messages. So on Sunday, I will be breathing a silent prayer for a day when their world of faith and their world of dance will come together...