No One Mourns the Wicked.

Monday morning began as usual: eating granola and yogurt while staring out the window at speeding taxis and parents bustling their children to the nursery down the street.  Then Alex walked in.  "Have you heard the news?"  And suddenly my morning was anything but usual.  Funny how a simple headline can turn your world upside-down.
I'm talking, of course, about the death of Osama Bin Laden.  Finally dead.  The response here has been odd, and for anyone who watches The Daily Show, it is right on the money: the Brits are still spending more time reveling in The Wedding than in Bin Laden's death, and anyone we broach the subject with seems tentative to show enthusiasm.  But we Americans, along with our Argentinian professor did get to share a cathartic celebratory moment at Tuesday's revision session.  I purchased a newspaper first thing to find out more, but I would love to know what it's like in the U.S., as I'm sure there's a lot of excitement.  Let me know what's going on!
Ironically, Alex, Geoff and I had chosen that night to see the overwhelmingly impressive theatrical production Wicked.  We didn't realize how appropriate our musical choice was until it began, when from the opening lines, "Good news! She's dead; the Witch of the West is dead! The wickedest witch there ever was, the enemy of all of us here in Oz is Dead! Good news!" we found the similarity of situation more than a little eerie.  From celebratory lines like, "Isn't it nice to know that good will conquer evil?" to suspicions expressed like, "But how do we know she's really dead?" we could relate to the story in a way most audiences probably haven't. 


Lots of reasons to be excited.

I'm torn between who represented the situation best - Stephen Schwartz with his tuneful "No One Mourns the Wicked" or President Obama, in his characteristically brief and eloquent statement.  If I had to choose one, I personally found Secretary of State Clinton's words especially meaningful: "You cannot wait us out. You cannot defeat us. But you can make the choice to abandon Al-Qaeda and participate in a peaceful political process."