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Thursday, December 21, 2017

The Sound of Music


For four years running now (since James started kindergarten), our first-day-of-Christmas-vacation tradition begins with The Sound of Music. The older I get, the more I appreciate the beauty of this wonderful movie: a Catholic Austria; modesty in film; clear distinctions between good and evil; the epic scenery of Salzburg; the appreciation for music (and music theory!); a positive depiction of family life (with seven children: two boys and five girls...this is very familiar to our family too).

My kids always wonder why I associate The Sound of Music with Christmas? A couple of years ago, I read the autobiography of Maria Von Trap (The Story of the Trapp Family Singers). I distinctly remember reading about her homespun preparations for Advent and Christmas all told with such humor and enthusiasm. Her narration was so vivid that I am always surprised when I don't see a Von Trapp Christmas in the film, it's so clear in my head.

I own a very old edition of Maria Von Trapp's Around the Year with the Trapp Family which offers suggestions for families for Catholic liturgical living. I pull it down from the shelf quite frequently. Throughout their family's life together, their Catholic faith sustained their epic adventures, and they often had a priest traveling with them throughout Europe or the States to offer daily Mass or family blessings. Maria also had a tabernacle and chapel outfitted in her own home so as to make Christ the focus of her family's life. Everything she did was so over the top and often excessive and exhausting for the people around her, but she was a formidable force, a dreamer, who made things happen for her family not unlike Maria's depiction in the film.

As for us, we have a Maria of our own who fits the nuns' song perfectly---one of our NICU nurses often sang it to Maria on her sickest days---"How do you solve a problem like Maria?"

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