Rent Sandwich

 *Spoiler Alert: La Boheme and Rent*

 

I made a Rent sandwich this weekend.

 

On Friday night, I attended La Boheme, the opera on which Rent was based.

On Saturday afternoon, I attended Rent.

On Sunday afternoon, I attended La Boheme again.

 

By the end of the weekend, I was La Boheme’d out.

 

I’m glad I made the sandwich, though. It was interesting to compare the two shows in real time. And the comparison left me with a challenge that I will share with you now.

 

In Rent, the character of Mimi is sick with AIDS. Toward the end of her life, her love interest, Roger, realizes how sick she is, professes his love for her, and speaks everything he needs her to hear.

 

In La Boheme, the character of Mimi is sick with Tuberculosis. Toward the end of her life, her love interest, Marcello, refuses to realize how sick she is, says, “I hold out hope. Do you think it’s serious?” and does not tell Mimi everything he needs her to hear. She dies. The show ends. The curtain falls. That’s it.

 

While I realize the ending of Rent is not very realistic--most people do not die and then come back to life like Mimi—I think that Rent gets the better ending because Jonathan Larson allows Roger (and Mimi) to resolve their issues and say good-bye. The librettists of La Boheme do not. Instead, they let the curtain fall on loads of unresolved grief.

 

On Friday night, when the opera ended, I was surprised. I had no idea that it ended like that—so sadly and abruptly.  

 

On Sunday afternoon, when the opera ended, I was still surprised…because I’d realized that the ending had spoken an important to message to me:

 

Don’t live life in denial of heartache and grief and don’t leave words of love unspoken…even when love is hard…especially when love is hard.

 

Dear God: None of us want to face death. None of us want to deal with dying. But when it’s looking us in the face and we know that it might come, help us to say what we need to say and boldly be able to let go, trusting You, because we can’t. Help us to never leave words of love unsaid, unspoken. Help us, instead, to live life with arms wide open. “There’s only us, there’s only this. Forget regret, or life is yours to miss. No other road, no other way. No day but today.” Amen.

 

And amen.