Children Will Listen

This week's Take This Tune is "Children Will Listen"  from Stephen Sondheim's "INTO THE WOODS".  To join in on the meme, sign in on the Take This Tune link and tell us a story.

The whole last half of the show is devoted to what happens after happily ever after.  Just as in life, it is seldom what you expect and is often cruel or heartbreaking.  Sometimes all we have to sustain us are the lessons learned in childhood.  Children Will Listen is preceded by a great song called "Your Fault" where all the adults blame each other leading to the witch reminding them that there are other ears hearing every word.  Too often it seems that adults forget the power of words. Some of them can hit as hard as fists and leave even deeper bruises.

One of my favorite quotes is from Tom Stoppard:  .  'Words... They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other ... If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little or make a poem which children will speak for you when you're dead.' 

Imagine what children will do with the painful, angry and bitter words.  Before you speak the next time, consider carefully because children will listen, they will believe, and they will echo them in their words and actions when you are dead.

Wishes Are Children - Manic Monday

You made my life so easy this week. Stephen Sondheim wrote about what comes after Happily Ever After when you dare to go Into The Woods. Be careful what you wish for because wishes can come true.

Careful the things you say
Children will listen
Careful the things you do
Children will see and learn
Children may not obey, but children will listen
Children will look to you for which way to turn
To learn what to be
Careful before you say "Listen to me"
Children will listen

Careful the wish you make
Wishes are children
Careful the path they take
Wishes come true, not free
Careful the spell you cast
Not just on children
Sometimes the spell may last
Past what you can see
And turn against you
Careful the tale you tell
That is the spell
Children will listen