BILLY ELLIOT HARD

Yesterday I got an email from one of the two judges of the LOVE ‘N STUFF contest(April 20 blog post: My Mother, Willy Loman, And A Contest For You).

“The entries are all good,” the judge said. “It’s going to be hard to pick just one.

I read them. And yes, they’re all good. Again, I’m glad I’m not doing the judging. It would be hard for me to pick one, too.

Hard. Not ‘Billy Elliot’ hard, though.

David Alvarez, one of the 3 Billy Elliots on Broadway, and now a swing—a performer responsible for learning multiple roles—in On the Town said in a NY Times interview (April 25), that this current job, like basic training in the army, which he joined after Billy Elliot closed, is hard but not ‘Billy Elliot’ hard. He meant that it does not require the grueling work that went into Billy’s dancing.

The article got me thinking about what’s been ‘Billy Elliot’ hard for me. Although they required (some still require) more emotional than physical work, 7 things come to mind:

–being a mother

–getting it the way I want it on the page

–single parenting

–putting my mother in a nursing home and visiting her there

–being with my father the last few days of his life

–his death

–not expecting people to change.

The three top items, my biggest challenges, are among the best parts of my life.

Feel free to write here in the comment section what’s ‘Billy Elliot’ hard for you. Physically or emotionally. This is not a contest, but rather a chance to share.

And…please enter your mother’s or mother figure’s truth or lesson in the comment section of last week’s post, MY MOTHER, WILLY LOMAN AND A CONTEST FOR YOU. If you already entered, feel free to enter again.

Make it ‘Billy Elliot’ hard for the judges. Surely Mom has (or had) more than one lesson to share.