Why I respect Lin Manuel Miranda, He did not throw away his shot

I will never forget the day that Lin Manuel Miranda changed my life.  This may be a dramatic statement but my secular dream job is to be on Broadway and those who know me know that I am animated enough to have made it. Jesus, however, knocked on the doors of my future claiming it for His own.

I digress.

It was a morning last October. “What do I even like anymore?” I asked myself. Two years serving college students followed by engagement, marriage, two job changes and then pregnancy left me lost.  I had given up so much of what I had once enjoyed and wanted it back. “I could listen to Rent or Wicked,” I thought. Nah, I need something new. So I did what any normal musical loving soul from Houma Louisiana would do and I texted my much trendier friend, Katharine.

“New Broadway musicals I should listen to?”

“HAMILTON!”, she replied.

Ok great. So I spotified Hamilton and a love affair began.

My friends, I LOVE this musical. My other secular dream job is history teacher so you can imagine that the marriage of my two loves would change my life (see, no exaggeration). Jared also enjoys the musical so we basically listened to it nonstop from October to March. We even played Hamilton in labor and delivery. Yes, little Penelope was born to the musical history of the American Revolution.

“Hamilton” has taken the musical world by storm and Lin Manuel Miranda, the genius behind this hip hop history is a brilliant man who is now somewhat of a Hamilton evangelist. As I read and listened to his interviews and speeches, however, I found myself torn. I liked him, but he also annoyed me just a bit. This bothered me and so I asked myself why a man who I would clearly be a friend with in real life would bother me. The answer I realized is that I am annoyed by Mr. Miranda because his passion, follow through and success reveals my laziness.

See, every time I heard or read an interview with Miranda he was fearlessly and passionately promoting Hamilton. This man is completely captivated by Alexander Hamilton. He is captivated by his inner struggles, his outer success and the drama of revolution that surrounded his life. Introduced to Hamilton by the biography written by Ron Chernow, Miranda ask himself,“ How has this not been made a musical?”. He then spent the next 6 years writing every single word rapped in the show.

He found a true story to be told and gave the very best of himself to tell it.

Today, anyone who likes musicals or history knows in almost completion the story of Alexander Hamilton and the drama of the revolution when before, most people might have known that Arron Burr killed Hamilton. It was Miranda’s unwavering, “ I don’t care if you don’ t like it because I do” passion that annoyed me. This man just won’t quit and that is precisely why the soundtrack landed at our little Penelope’s birth and in the ears of millions around the nation. His risk led to his success and I am jealous!

Miranda took a truth that was interesting, valuable and otherwise unknown and made it beautiful. He literally does not care if you don’t care. In this lies the indictment.

I, Mallory Bueche Smyth, contain a rivaling passion in my being. Everything matters to me and I too have found a Truth that is far more interesting, for more valuable, deeper, mysterious and despite our best beliefs, unknown. It is the drama of the salvation of human history. In the words of Frank Sheed, it is

"God, infinite and eternal, Trinity, Unity; humanity, finite, created in time, fallen and redeemed by Christ; the individual human person born into the life of nature, reborn into the life of grace, united with Christ in the Church which is His mystical body, aided by angels, hindered by devils, destined for heaven, in peril of hell"

The man of Jesus Christ captivates me. It is the Truth of His incarnation, the success of His ministry, and the façade of His defeat by death and the drama that surrounds our salvation. This is the foundation of our very existence. How is it that I have not yet given the very best of myself to this Man and to the telling of this story? Although we think we know it, we as a society know about as much about our salvation history as we did about Hamilton before Miranda told us more!

I hope to one day shake Mr. Miranda’s hand and thank him for sharing himself and his loves with the world regardless of any criticism or obstacle that got in his way. I hope to tell him that by his slight annoyance, he inspired me to get off my butt and join him. I hope to thank him for truly making my life better and I hope that by following in His footsteps I can pay it forward and inspire you the reader to give a second look to the most interesting story ever told and take your place in the narrative.

P.S. If you haven’t listend to Hamilton, do yourself a favor! It’s right here.