My Very Greek Summer.

A diversion.

Over the past week, I’ve been to the movies three times, and two of them were rooted in Greek mythos. (Apologies to Minions vs. Monsters, which is rooted in a mythos all its own).

Of course, my wife and I saw The Odyssey, which, as you must well know by now, is an absolute triumph of a film in every way. I was riveted from the second it started through the whole of the closing credit song, and I wanted to (and still want to) see it again immediately.

And then, yesterday, the whole family went to go see the on-screen version of Hadestown: The Musical, which was almost just as impactful. I have seen the play twice in the past eight months, and now the film.

It’s a sad song, but they sing it again anyway.

Actually, they are both sad songs that have been sung over and over and over again through the millennia, and the reason is this…

They are excellent stories.

In a world where literally 80% of jobs require people to be “storytellers,” it’s interesting to know that the best stories are ones that can be retold over again many times, and won’t lose a bit of whatever made them good in the first place.

It’s a really good lesson for those of us who tell stories.

There’s an appetite for good ones, not necessarily new ones. Of course, we can always find a way to put a twist on the old stories, and there are new angles to take, but the stories that resonate do so for a reason.

Hadestown, for example, puts a spin on the story, setting it in a New Orleans-style jazz age bar, but the story is the same as has been told for centuries.

The framing of the point of The Odyssey shines a different light on Homer’s story, making it sort of a spiritual successor to Oppenheimer, but the story remains the same.

I can’t recommend these two enough. They’re unbelievably well made, each one.

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As always, if you have it in you, please give a thought to donating time or money to Hospice Austin. They do amazing work for people who are going through the hardest thing a person can face.

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