The Parable of the Greatest Showman
Witnessing dreamy Hugh Jackman undergo alchemical transformation
I've been doing this weird avoidant dance with the movie The Greatest Showman since 2017 when it first came out. It wasn't because I hate circuses or musicals or Hugh Jackman. I actually adore Hugh Jackman…which makes it all the weirder that I avoided the movie…
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See, there are a few huge Hollywood movies that get a lot of buzz here in Ghana when they debut, and Showman wasn't one of them. So the only way I knew about the movie was because I heard the soundtrack song This Is Me in a YouTube video. I kind of fell in love with that song and a few others from the soundtrack, without actually seeing the movie. And also because I didn't want a pesky plot to spoil my experience of the music, which was very uplifting to the point where I'd started to take the lyrics way personally.
So I'm happy to say that a few days ago, just seven years after its release, I finally watched the movie with my daughter...a movie that came out before she was born. :-) I was enthralled! I love a big budget musical, and it was fun to enjoy another one as I was coming down from my Wonka high.
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I was pleasantly surprised that the movie was a biographical story of P.T Barnum's career, the entrepreneur who famously invented the family circus in the early 19th century. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s Circus went on to become one of America's great pastimes. The costumes, performances, and grandoise musical numbers were so very enjoyable. I understand why the movie grossed over $400 million worldwide.
Spoilers follow! (just in case you are like me and have waited years to see the movie.)
But a biographical movie isn't much to write home about without exploring the dark, shadowy side that is driving the protagonist. As portrayed in the movie, Phineas (known as P.T Barnum) grew up as the son of a servant in a large estate where he was expected to do his work and know his place. Young Phineas took a liking to the estate owner’s daughter Charity, causing an obvious conflict.
Eventually the two kids grew up, staying in touch although their lives had gone in different directions. When they were old enough, Phineas and Charity got married and went off to New York City make their way in the world. Phineas, having grown up poor and orphaned, was determined to prove that he could provide from his wealthy-background wife. had to provide his wife. Never mind that her father looked at him as if he were gum stuck to the bottom of his shoe. But Charity was happy enough just to be married to the boy she fell in love with.
Phineas gets a job at a bank, but eventually the bank goes out of business after losing all of its assets. Young Phineas is left jobless and with a family to support. And so, driven by his desire to prove himself and also provide for his family, he started a "museum of oddities," which later became the world’s first three-ring circus. The circus grows increasingly popular and is also hugely controversial, which of course makes it even more famous. Business is booming. Crowds are flocking. He and his troupe perform for the freaking queen of England.
But, as singer Jenny Lind belts in her signature song for the movie, all of these successes seem to be never enough for Phineas. He begins to sacrifice time with his family to work more and more. His anger at Charity's father still lingers, and it threatens to come between he and his wife. But still, he persists in building his empire at all costs.
It isn't until a series of unfortunate circumstances forces him to stop and pause that Phineas realizes what he's been doing wrong. Thugs burn down his circus, and his successful music tour with Jenny Lind grinds to a halt amidst a front page scandal that rocks the city of New York. It's then he's forced to realize what means most to him, and what it is he has to fight to save, and why.
So that brings me to a parable that Christ told in the bible. (I know, unexpected pivot but stay with me). I'm not a Christian anymore per se, but I still find that there's a lot of good wisdom in the bible to draw from. In Matthew chapter 14, he tells the Parable of the Wheat and Weeds:
He put another parable to them. “The kingdom of heaven,” he said, “is like this! Once upon a time a man sowed good seed in his field. While the workers were asleep, his enemy came and sowed weeds in among the wheat, and went away. When the crop came up and produced wheat, then the weeds appeared as well. So the farmer’s servants came to him. “Master,” they said, “didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?”
“This is the work of an enemy,” he replied. “So,” the servants said to him, “do you want us to go and pull them up?”
“No,” he replied. “If you do that you’ll probably pull up the wheat as well, while you’re collecting the weeds. Let them both grow together until the harvest. Then, when it’s time for harvest, I will give the reapers this instruction: First gather the weeds and tie them up in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” - Matthew 13:24-30 NTFE version
Usually this parable is interpreted as bible believing Christians (the wheat) living among sinners (the weeds), but on the day of harvest (the rapture) they will be separated to be burned or saved by the Master (God).
I take a more esoteric view of the verse (because I'm like that), where the wheat and weeds are different parts of our personal inner experience. The wheat represents the nourishing, valuable aspect of you worth preserving. Your soul, your essence, the part of you that is true, living and evolving.
The weeds represent the dark shadowy bits that we all have to deal with. The things that get in the way of our relationships, cause us to self-sabotage, and otherwise make us inwardly miserable.
Phineas' feeling that he had to prove himself nearly drove him to ruin his own life, but fortunately, on his own day of harvest, he could tell what was wheat and what was weeds. What was real and true for him was that he loved his family, had created lasting camaraderie among the circus folk, and had brought enjoyment to thousands of people. The weeds were the voices at the back of his mind telling him that it was never enough. It was the part of him that was still a little boy trembling before Charity’s judgemental father. Phineas needed to do more, better, bigger, faster, to show his father-in-law and everyone else who ever doubted him that he wasn’t unworthy.
As he sang in the movie's watershed song Come Back Home:
For years and years I chased their cheers
Crazy speed of always needing more
But when I stop and see you here
I remember what all of this was for!
Subsequently he rushes back to his wife's family home to make amends with her, then goes on to save the circus, but for the right reasons this time.
This analogy of separating and harvesting is the same as a practice in the magical practice of alchemy called solve et coagula, or “to dissolve and bring back together.” Alchemy is a practice of taking the painful darkness of one's experience and transforming it into gold, much like fertilizer gives life and luster to lush, dewy flowers.
The solve et coagula process is central to alchemy. Dissolving the pain of the human experience and transforming it for the betterment of oneself and the world at large is an ongoing process. Whether or not you take a magical approach to it, personal growth is a journey and we shouldn't expect to pass every test with flying colors. While there is still dross to dissolve, messing up is just part of the experience. But taking our mess ups and turning them into gold like Phineas ultimately did in the end? Priceless!
Ultimately, Phineas becomes a better person for his journey. What's worthwhile to note is that he never would have come to all of his valuable realizations had he not screwed up to begin with. Which is why I believe we shouldn't be so hard on ourselves when we mess things up. Even if someone gets hurt in the process, it’s simply because we are human beings who can't avoid interacting with each other. Not all of our interactions will be flawless demonstrations of humanity’s higher nature.
It's just a given in life.
But, as long as we're willing and able to separate the wheat from the weeds when the time of harvest comes, whatever that looks like, then there's hope for righting the wrongs and becoming a better person when all is said and done.
Of course this journey isn't always linear like in a movie. I’ve had to have a lot of grace for myself when I mess up and realize it later, only to make the same mistake again. It's always hardest for me when I know I've harmed someone because I was ignorant of my shortcomings. But I still have good relationships with people I have hurt in the past, which means they saw that I was someone worth forgiving and loving.
That's another thing...Phineas never would have had this experience, or made it out of the experience, without the people around him. As much as these stories emphasize the protagonist, they can never get far without the people in their corner. This is something I appreciate more and more the older I get.
I will probably watch this movie three or four more times at least...I think I watched Wonka five times. The joys of ADHD fixation! :-)