revisiting "Les Miserables"

This is what happens when Kat is put under house arrest...

Yeah, so I opened up my song directory (under the very bad influence of watching Youtube clips). I find it hilarious that two years after first getting hooked on Victor Hugo's master work and the musical derived from it, that the story and the songs are still *so* applicable to my daily life.

I remember high school days, being clumped with my three amies, doing our own renditions of songs from the "Les Miserables" musical. I remember notes in red ink, a red flag up by a desk, and joking about barricades. Those were the "activist" days, when everyone was joking I'd get in prison for writing about the government once I reached the age of 18.

Fast forward two years. The four Amies have not met up since Cookie's despedida. I've seen protest rallies and survived the political storms of earlier this year. Thank God I have not gotten in trouble with the law yet. I've gotten a little tired of taking to the streets, and would rather focus my efforts on other ways of changing the world. 

Still, every single day, I see the stories of "Les Miserables" playing out: people struggling for righteousness, young idealists trying to change things, innocents making their way in the world, fallen souls striving for redemption, students who dream much with varying results, streetchildren in trouble, women hoping to hold their families together, systems that hinder society, crooks who cheat people day in and day out and God somehow loving everyone and allowing them to have free will in events...

And somehow my role hasn't exactly changed very much since those lit-obssessed days. I'm still like Enjolras, the idealist who has grand ideas for the future. I'm still like Eponine, the lost, slightly wacked out girl who can get too caught up in everyday life. And there's still that part of me that is like Jean Valjean, who has been through hell and back, and is ready to surrender to God's will.

I think I should go reread that entire Brick.