There are songs that better describe America and patriotism, I suppose, but I can’t think of too many other songs that mean independence to me more than this song. I’m biased, of course, living as I do in the Great Midwest. Some people love the ocean or the mountains. They look out at miles of water or towering peaks and feel something. I’m not one of those people. I confess I love acres and acres of plowed or planted fields standing as a proud testament to someone’s hard work and tenacity. When “the corn is as high as an elephant’s eye”, and “the cattle are standing like statues”, I find this magnificent, thrilling even. The earth itself is abundant and I see that most in evidence on farmland. On a quieter level though, sitting on my modest suburban patio on a sultry summer Ohio evening, I know that “the sounds of the earth are like music” because I hear that particular song in the thick, humid air alive with insects and birds, the crickets and toads operatically calling for a mate, or the delicious evening thunderstorms that bellow across the sky, and I’m here to tell you that this music is a love song. “O’ What a Beautiful Morning” is an American love song and I am enthralled with the ideas represented: being in love with a another person, in love with life, in love with the possibilities for independence that present themselves to you every single morning.
I leave a lot of musicals here, I know. I’ll not apologize. My heart often sings out and I’m compelled to share those songs, and our gracious host is obliging enough to humor me. Oklahoma though, is my favorite Broadway musical because it is so very American. Not only the cowboys and the ranchers, or the aw-shucks Americana. Oklahoma is wonderful because it freely shares that American idea of independence: The idea that simple people can own land and work and produce from that land, independent of the government. This is America, perhaps the one American thing I love most of all. This Read more