Equus

So, I had a really great day yesterday.  First of all, I had a day off of work so no more listening to ridiculous people with ridiculous complaints...  Then I got to sleep a little late in the morning which is something I haven't had in a while.  Can I just say that I love sleep!  I love the way that sleep melts away the cares of the world.  Plus dreams are far more vivid in the morning.

I went to lunch with my mom and brother at a new place called the La Jolla Groves.  It is run by a brilliant chef who single-handedly took all of Utah by storm and has created three of the most successful restaurants in the state.  The food was just the right balance of light, substance, flavor and texture.  I got the beef tenderloin in citrus-mango reduction sauce.  Mom got the Chicken Marsala and Jason got the basil pesto chicken with pasta. We ended up taking a few bites of each and when someone would say, "switch" we would pass our plates around the table in order to enjoy a taste of each dish.  I'm sure people in the restaurant were looking at us and wondering what was wrong with us.  We talked about all kinds of things.  My mom felt the need to "check up" on Jason's and my dating lives.  I told the story of how a potential relationship dissolved due to a lack of chemistry and Jason told how one of his great loves is now engaged and he seems to be a little riled up about it.  We observed to him that he is not nearly as ambivalent as he would like to (or rather like us to) believe he is.  It was a great conversation.  We even grabbed some lemon cake and chocolate mousse cake for dessert and each got a taste.

I got to hang out with my boys in the afternoon also.  I love my time with my boys.  I love being with my boys more than sleeping, and THAT is saying something.  I miss very much being able to come home, hit the door, put my things down and call out "hello?" and have my boys all come running, shouting, "DADDYYYYY."  See, during school they spend every school night with their mom.  I get them during most of the summer, holidays, weekends, etc.  It just seems like it's never enough time.  We played around for a while and made plans for the weekend.  I took the boys to Nickel City, a nickel arcade, a couple of weeks ago.  I figured I would let them play anything they wanted to and it would only be a nickel per game.  So... three hours and seventy dollars later, we left with the boys still clamoring for more.  Since then they have been begging to go back again and again.  I keep telling them that if we go all the time that two things will happen.  One, I will be broke, and two, it will stop being special for them to go.  I think instead we are going to go to the movie theater to see the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie.  The boys have been reading the books since they came out.

The crowning event of the day came later that evening when some friends of mine and I went to see the Westminster College production of Peter Shaffer's Equus.  Apparently, this play caused quite a controversial stir when Daniel Radcliff, of Harry Potter fame, was cast to play one of the main characters who at a certain point in the play strips naked and mounts a horse.  I had no idea about any of this when I said I would go, but I am glad that I didn't let any of the controversy cloud my opinion.  Peter Shaffer is the same author who wrote Amadeus, the story of Mozart told from perspective of his greatest rival: Antonio Salieri.  I had been a fan of his already and had never known about Equus.  Equus is a dual story of a troubled young boy who is sent to a mental institution after gouging the eyes out of six horses and of the psychiatrist who treats him.  It was a very interesting psychological play that worked with imagery, wording, absolutely brilliant staging and interwove the stories of each of the characters perfectly.  It was powerful and profound.  I truly enjoyed it very much.  If you have the opportunity to see it, I highly recommend it.  For you prudes out there, let me assure you that the nudity was done very tastefully behind a sheer scrim.  The idea of the scene was portrayed that way without being explicit.

We left the theater in a state of wonder.  We were able to draw parallels to very powerful symbolism and interesting similarities between the doctor and the patient.  The ultimate question that we were left with was, which one was crazy?  It's an interesting question to explore.