I went to see the musical "Rent" today with my twelve year-old daughter.  I know it has been around for a long time, and I have heard a lot about it, but I never had the chance to see a performance.  This one was a touring company, which put on a good show. 

    I was moved by it.  "Seasons of Love," the show’s most famous song, was the tune that Maggie chose to have us play at Aidan’s funeral.  When I hear it, he comes back to me.  The death of the character Angel, a central element in the plot, also made me think of Aidan: Angel’s death made the other characters see their lives in a different light; he gave them a gift of sorts.  Something like Aidan’s gift.

     What also struck me was the Taoist undercurrent of the show.  This was most striking at the end, when the cast is singing:

There is no future
There is no past

Thank God this
Moment’s not the last

There’s only us
There’s only this
Forget regret or
Life is yours to miss

No other road no other way
No day but today

I can’t control
My destiny
I trust my soul
My only goal

 Made me think of a passage from Chuang Tzu.  He is describing the way in which a person has transcended grief at the death of his mother:

He’s lost track of what it is to live and what it is to die.  And he’s lost track of which comes first, which last.  Like any other thing inhabiting change, he simply waits for whatever unfathomed transformation may come over him next.  He’s changing and yet he knows the changeless.  He’s changeless and yet he knows the change.  You and I, on the other hand, we’re dreaming: we haven’t even begun to awake.  His body may fear for its life but his mind remains unperturbed.   (97)

    It’s not exactly the same.  The "Rent" characters are more emotional, more rooted to their sense of themselves and each other.  But that sense of "there’s only this" is there.  There is no future or past but only the next  "unfathomed transformation" that will come over us.   And, I think, Chuang Tzu would conclude in the same manner as "Rent:" Live in the moment; live for today.