Ignorance and The Sound of Music

When my daughter was eight years old, I realized she had never seen The Sound of Music.

So, I went to the local video store to rent it for a weekend. I couldn’t find it amid all the musicals and other garbage in the store, and went to the counter to ask about the 1965 Academy Award’s best picture Oscar winner.

The young man asked, “How do you spell that?”

“Music? Sound?”

What could he possibly have meant?

“Yeah.”

“Wait a minute. You’ve never heard of The Sound of Music?”

He shrugged. “Nope.”

“But everyone’s heard of The Sound of Music.” I turned to the man beside me (the way Woody Allen does in his films) and asked him. “Have you ever heard of The Sound of Music?”

“Sure. Chick flick.”

My jaw dropped.

You must know this song!

Resisting the temptation to dance around the store, I broke into song, “Doe, a deer, a female deer.”

The young woman at the cash register joined me while the kid at the counter looked like one of those deers caught in the headlights.

Alas, I’m ashamed to admit I returned to the young man. “Tell your mother she did a poor job raising you if you’ve never heard of The Sound of Music.”

I bought the movie at the department store around the corner.

I’m glad I did.

My daughter loved The Sound of Music.

So did my 20-year-old niece–who has terrific parents, but had never seen it before! She watched it with us and then stayed up late to watch it a second time that night!

Based on The Sound of Music book

In later years, I read the book upon which the musical production–sort of–was based. The Story of the Trapp Family Singers tells a slightly different history, with the large family’s life centered around their Catholic faith.

Time and again, they prayed their way through the many difficulties that confronted them.

While the family had major financial reversals even before World War II, they reached a point where the head of the household Georg (Captain Von Trapp), gathered them together and asked a very pertinent question:

“Children, we have a choice now: do we want to keep the material goods we still  have. . .our friends, and all the things we are fond of? . . . Then we shall have to
give up the spiritual goods: our faith and honor. We can’t have both any more.”

They moved to the United States where they eked out a living giving concerts, playing the recorder (I learned to play from their book Enjoy Your Recorder: The Trapp Family Singers New Method Recorder Book), and eventually opening a ski resort in Stowe, Vermont: The Trapp Family Lodge.

Georg was buried on the land near the chapel, which was one of the first buildings the family built.

The heart of the family was Jesus

Rather than Max Detwiler, their musical manager was a Catholic priest who traveled with them for twenty years. He advised the family on business matters, but also attended to their spiritual needs.

The heart of the family was Jesus.

The family’s devotion to God is only briefly touched on in the movie, but it was obvious and real.

Everyone should see the movie at least once for a variety of reasons. Ignorance of the events surrounding the family, and of the God who motivated them, is no excuse.

Though I still think I was rude when I spoke to the young cashier about his mother.

Next week I’ll tell about my personal experiences on Salzburg’s Sound of Music tour!

Do you have a favorite Sound of Music memory?

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