Yes, Emily, We Do Understand

“On earth, you’re too wonderful for anyone to realize you.” Later Emily Gibbs says, “They don’t understand much, do they?”

In the third act of Thornton Wilder’s play, Our Town, Emily dies in childbirth. She asks to go back to her hometown, Grovers Corners. Granted her wish, she is dismayed at how people fail to appreciate the wonder of their daily lives. Sadly, she realizes she can’t make them understand.

The recent revival of Our Town, starring Paul Newman as the Stage Manager/Narrator, brings back poignant memories of small-town life. Newman describes the characters and how they feel in their roles . . . the milk man delivers at the door both news and milk . . . the doctor comes home at daybreak after delivering twins . . . the choir practices at the Congregational Church.

Call it nostalgia; call it sentiment. Regardless of how often I see Our Town, it evokes warm feelings for the life of yesterday. Grovers Corners, New Hampshire, could be my hometown of Fairview, Illinois, just as it could be any small town in America.

Our Town opened on Broadway in 1938 amidst the turmoil that preceded World War II. It was soon replayed in high schools and colleges, probably because it portrayed a style of life that people sensed would soon disappear.

In my town, the English teacher staged the play at our local high school. He also portrayed Paul Newman’s role as Stage Manager/Narrator. Many of the students had the same roles that their parents played in real life: undertaker, banker, housewife. The choir was Dutch Reformed, not Congregational.

The English teacher left to die in World War II. So did the banker’s son.

Some critics see Our Town as a simple drama mixed with cracker barrel philosophy. Others see it as a religious play with spiritual metaphors and allegories, and with the Stage Manager representing God.

We now live in a reprise of the time of the drama’s debut in 1938. Again the world is at war, with one quarter of the world’s population in conflicts, small and large.

So what’s the message for us in Our Town? It’s to savor each day that the Lord has given us. It’s to take care in what we do and say, because, as with the sped arrow, no words or deeds can be recalled. It’s to appreciate what we have. It’s to remember that the world may change, but God remains constant in His love for us. It’s to show Emily that we do understand.