Happy Talk

Happy Talk
lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
music by Richard Rodgers

You got to have a dream, if you don't have a dream
How you gonna have a dream come true?
– Bloody Mary in South Pacific

Words to live by, if you ask me. To some extent, it’s ridiculously simple; kind of like one of Steve Martin’s earlier routines when he said, “I’m going to share with you the secret of how to be a millionaire. First, get a million dollars.” But Dr Martin Luther King, Jr also knew the importance of a dream. When he told America and the world, “I have a dream”, it inspired us all to awaken from our slumber and give that dream flesh and bone.

In another discipline, if you’ll permit me, British cook Nigella Lawson presents this axiom: “The most important part of cooking your turkey is shopping for it.” I think she is also getting at the importance of starting out with the ideal. Of course, we know all about the power of dreams in the Bible. So, in that rich tradition, from Joseph to the Magi to St Peter to Dr King to Mr Martin to Ms Lawson, let’s hear what Oscar Hammerstein has to say:

Happy talk, keep talking happy talk
Talk about things you like to do
You got to have a dream, if you don't have a dream
How you gonna have a dream come true?

South Pacific, the Pulitzer Prize winning musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, burst onto the scene in 1948, just two short years after the publication of its source material, Tales of the South Pacific, by James Michener (itself a Pulitzer Prize winner). Come to think of it, Mr Michener’s Tales about military life during World War II, came just one short year after the Enola Gay, Fat Man and Little Boy (or Little Man and Fat Boy – I never can remember which). Wow, those guys knew how to turn out the material back then. (And by “guys”, I’m talking about the artistic guys, not the guys at Oak Ridge and Alamogordo, although I guess they worked pretty well under pressure, themselves.)

The musical South Pacific, while still adhering to the norms of the musical comedy format (now here’s an amazing thing: this “norm” was established only a mere six years earlier and arose from Messrs Rodgers and Hammerstein’s landmark Oklahoma!, which reset the compass for every musical to follow), nevertheless addressed some pretty hot issues for the time: racism, racial relations, and the excesses of war. Today’s song is sung by Bloody Mary, a Pacific Islander who trades with the sailors stationed on the surrounding islands during the War. English is her second language and she says that she will “speak English as good as any crummy Marine.” In another great song from the show, the sailors sing, “Bloody Mary is the girl I love, her skin is tender as DiMaggio's glove.” (Sorry for the gratuitous baseball reference, but you know me.) I also like Bloody Mary because she is the consummate entrepreneur, but on the occasion of this song, she is trying to get her daughter and Lt Joe Cable to fall in love:

Talk about the moon floating in the sky
Looking at a lily on the lake
Talk about a bird learning how to fly
Making all the music he can make!

Keep talking and dreaming, because I think, to some extent, you do see what you’re looking for. At the 9:30 service on Sunday, Jim showed a picture of a stretch of road in Illinois. A woman and her son were driving and saw what they believed to be the face of Jesus in the potholes and cracks. They took a picture of it and now it’s all over the internet. History is full of these examples – I even remember the Lord showing up on someone’s piece of toast a couple of years ago. Actually, it might have been Rush Limbaugh, now that I think about it. But you know what I mean. The cool thing in church Sunday was that Jim looked at the picture of the road, with a string of telephone poles alongside, and saw crosses. That’s where I want to get to – where I see the right things in everything.

Happy talk, keep talking happy talk
Talk about things you like to do
You got to have a dream, if you don't have a dream
How you gonna have a dream come true?

The film version of South Pacific was released in 1958. Do you remember when Ted Turner was colorizing all those old movies several years ago? You don’t hear so much about it anymore, but it was a big deal back then. People were up in arms and Mr Turner, characteristically, was throwing his weight around anyway. I always thought it was a waste of time, at best (and, at worst, flat-out vandalism to those films that had been crafted to look a certain way in black and white). But I was willing to make one exception: if they could re-colorize the musical numbers in South Pacific back to a more natural look, I’d be a happy man. If you’ve ever seen the film version, you know that, for some unfathomable reason, the film’s creative team thought it would be “artistic” to shoot each musical number through a different colored filter. Boy, does it get on your nerves! I envision some hapless janitor at the studio one night bumping the “Color” lever up to the “Ghastly” setting, Looney Tunes style. But I was reading a while back that the 50th-Anniversary DVD release of the film does contain reworked musical numbers that are more in keeping with colors found in nature. Don’t you just love technology when it works! But we’re here to have “happy talk” today. Let’s continue.

Talk about the sparrow looking like a toy
Peeking through the branches of a tree
Talk about the girl, talk about the boy
Counting all the ripples on the sea

Sparrows – I’m reminded of Matthew 6:26 – “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” Jesus has just spelled it all out in His “Sermon on the Mount”. He’s set the bar very high. But, as we come to end to Matthew 6, Jesus ends with some very “happy talk.” We can dream big because of the Father’s deep love for us. And here’s a really great thing: no matter what we can dream, the Lord has even greater things in store. St Paul picks up on this idea when he quotes the prophet Isaiah:

However, as it is written:
"What no eye has seen,what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived—
these things God has prepared for those who love him."
– 1 Corinthians 2:9 (quoting Isaiah 64:4)

Bloody Mary has it right, too:

Talk about the boy saying to the girl
Golly, baby, I'm a lucky cuss
Talk about the girl saying to the boy
You an' me is lucky to be us

There’s an older gentleman in our congregation and he carries in his wallet a laminated card with this question written on it:

What are you daring to attempt that could not be accomplished without God’s strength and intervention?

That is such a blessing to me! Dream big. Pray hard. And I think St Paul, Martin Luther King, Steve Martin, Nigella Lawson, and even Bloody Mary and Oscar Hammerstein would approve.

Happy talk, keep talking happy talk
Talk about things you like to do
You got to have a dream, if you don't have a dream
How you gonna have a dream come true?