Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Blogged by JME
We started the holidays out with one of our favorite Christmas traditions: Going to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. This is something N8 and I have done seven times (missing a year here or there due to N8's deployment schedule) and have loved every time. We bring someone different with us every year. This year we brought N8's mom and her husband. I was able to get us front row seats, which we were very excited about!!!
The best way I can describe a TSO show would be to tell you it is like Forgotten Carols on steroids. It has so many amazing special effects, but also has a wonderful Christmas message as well.
This year, they put on a different show than they normally do. They performed The Lost Christmas Eve. It is an amazing story of an angel who is given the assignment to search a given area that is filled with people from all over the world, New York City, to find people performing Christlike deeds. He finds many people who fit this description.
However, during his search, he finds a man who is incredibly bitter. Looking into this man's past, he finds that when he was young, he was a man who believed in God and that men were created in God's image. He becomes successful and gets married, and six months later, they discover they are expecting a child.
The man waits in the lobby as his wife delivers their son, but when the doctor comes out of the delivery room, he tells the man that during the delivery, his wife started to hemorrhage and lost too much blood. They were not able to save her. In addition to this, their son went without oxygen for too long, which resulted in major brain damage. This child would never learn to talk, most likely would never learn to walk, and would definately never hold a job or contribute to society. The man becomes very angry and tells the hospital that he does not want the child. He signs papers and gives the child away.
This is when the man became extremely bitter and spent 40 years with that bitterness eating at him like a plague. His hatred grows and he ends up hating Christmas and this time of year.
The performer in the picture above is from London, England. He reminded N8 and I of Thor and so that was his nickname throughout the night.
The angel watches as he bumps into a little girl on his way home, who smiles at him and asks if he has any children. He answers, "No!" but realizes this is a lie. It makes him start thinking about his son and where he may be now. He calls the home where he placed his son 40 years ago.
They tell him that his son never learned to talk but does walk and lives in a home next to the hospital but spends most of his time in the hospital volunteering in the newborn unit. The man goes to the hospital and enquires where his son may be.
As he enters the floor where his son volunteers, he immediately sees his son, as his son looks just like he did 40 years before. His son spends his time rocking the babies whose bodies shake uncontrollably from the heroine their mother's used. The father looks at his son wondering if he will ever forgive him for abandoning him years before.
His son notices his father and smiles. His father walks to an incubator and picks up one of the babies and spends Christmas Eve evening gently rocking these sweet babies. The angel returns with his list of people who he saw performing Christlike deeds and includes the father on his list.
It was a great show and one N8 and I will remember.