(Don't) Wait For It
My house just finished our second watch-through of Hamilton yesterday, this time with lots of commentary as we assessed characters, their motivations, their shortcomings, their shattered dreams, and ways they shoot themselves in the foot. Aaron Burr in particular. (photo by Xu Haiwei, from unsplash.com ) "If you were waiting for the opportune moment," Jason said as we watched, " that was it." I find Burr a relatable character for many reasons -- his exasperation with Hamilton, his willingness to hold on and wait for what he wants, his reluctance to commit to something that he isn't sure how it's going to end. His aversion to risk. And it is almost viscerally painful to watch his character arc through the musical, how he is always just a little too late to commit to a course of action, how the one time that he finally decides to pull the trigger is exactly the wrong and worst possible time to do it. There are many threads of tragedy in the stories t