Chocolate Ice Cream in a Bowl of Tears

I love theatre and don't get out to watch as much as I should.

Which made a Facebook invite from the Artistic Director of the Children's Theatre especially interesting.  She was involved with the Mad Horse Theatre Company's production of "The Clean House", by Sarah Ruhl.

I have a lot of respect for AD's skill in building character and stage action, skills she brings out in all of the kids she works with.  So I went to this with a lot of expectation.

It was not disappointing.  In fact, it was great.

Cleaning house is a tender point with me.  My mom was a housekeeper for one of the Old Oil Money families in Tulsa.  She singlehandedly kept a huge Italianate mansion clean in the Old Oil Money section of town.  She wore a white "Hazel"-style dress, a white cap and squeaky white crepe-soled shoes.

But her care of the house - and its four occupants - was impeccable.  Other Old Oil Money Mansion owners were constantly trying to hire her away.  No dice.  She stayed put for all of her life.

She did take me along with her on her cleaning expeditions to other houses owned by the Family.  I learned how to turn a bed, run a vacuum, clean a window - just never quite got the hang of getting it done by having someone else do it (I didn't read "Tom Sawyer" until almost out of undergrad school).

But "The Clean House" isn't really about cleaning, except as a metaphor representing how messy life can be - and that some of the cleanest, most pure souls the on inside have the dirtiest, messiest lives on the outside.

Something like that.

I empathize with the sentiment because of losing Mary Flagg a few weeks ago, my own mother more than a decade ago (some things we never get over, just learn to live with and grow from) and my own insecurities about the direction my life has taken.

Which the play expressed beautifully and I recommend it to you.

Hence the chocolate ice-cream.  It ties into the play (and occupies a great moment) and, even for a diabetic, taken in moderation, can be a soul-feeder.

I just need to make sure that my soul doesn't get so full that it gets fat and selfish - I have to take responsibility for keeping it exercised and involved.