Howyagettinon? So – big fuss still going on about this musical in New York City. The one about Gander and the goings-on after 9/11. Amazing. I mean, who’d a thunk it? The ‘Big Apple’ all a-buzz about the ‘core’ of our province. Freaky.

And it’s all going on about a decade or so after the dastardly deeds way back in 2001 that started the whole story. I guess it takes time for this sort of stuff to sink in, percolate, and for creative juices to flow and finally flick-out a show – if it ever happens at all.

And this is not the first thing that has come out of the whole Gander/plane-people business, of course. There was a movie, and a TV show, I think, and no doubt a few songs and lots of news stories, and what-not. But the last thing – the very last thing – that I would have expected was a ‘musical’, right? With songs and dancing and stuff? Especially one that could actually ‘work’, anyway, and get on any size of a stage, let alone end up on Broadway, for God’s sake. Life is some wacky ride, sir. Never ceases to amaze.

So anyway – Come From Away, the Musical. Huuuge hit. Smashed a home run way over on the west coast of the continent, then in Toronto, now in New York. Massive success, rave reviews, everybody gone ga-ga altogether. The Prime Minister, his hair, the wife, and Donnie Trump’s daughter all went to gawk at it early on. The cream of the A-list crop of stars has swooned and drooled all over it. And now it rockets-on, sir, with tributes all over, box-office records weekly… Wow.

And all because a bunch of small towns in our little Province did the natural thing, the decent thing, and did it really well – they cared. Like they had much choice or options, really. Let seven thousand people fester and prune on some jets in their own juices? Yes, boy. Mind, now.

And it’s a tad sad, in a way, that the most typical, common, to-be-expected human response to a tragedy is getting such attention, right? The focus on it is like a surprise sighting of an extinct species, and the masses have come with binoculars and cameras to bear witness and celebrate. Is ‘compassion’ today really so rare that it stirs up such joy? Can the world be so shocked that simple kindness survives in this century? I sure hope not.

Maybe we do take the normal ‘niceness’ here for granted, I dunno. Maybe we too, some day, will be all scooped-up by a story of good-deeds done on some other remote island, elsewhere on the planet. Perhaps in New York they assumed, a hundred years ago, that it would always be like it still is here. Yikes.

A friend of mine has seen the show on Broadway recently. Happens to be from Gander, too. Says it was “surreal” to be sitting there in the theatre, hearing and feeling the emotions all around him, over the stories of people he knows personally. Told me it was so overwhelming it made him proud, just being from here. But it confused him too. “All we did was what you’re supposed to do,” he said. “And everyone is amazed?”

Could be the timing of it all too, I s’pose. With the terrorism on the go nowadays, and the hostile politics on the planet. The Trump/Putin poison in the air and the hate-talk all over the social media, you know. Maybe it’s the only warm-and-fuzzy light in an otherwise fairly dark world? And a most welcome one at that.

But it’s a good thing, no doubt, and not only for us here, certainly. If people far and wide need a reminder of how we’re all supposed to treat each other, and of how it can be again – everywhere… well, we’re happy to oblige.

We still have what the world needs, I guess, and you’re welcome to it. Rinse and repeat.

Who would have thought, with all the natural resources we have in Newfoundland and Labrador, that it would be our decency and kind-heartedness that would be our hottest commodity. Wicked. Well done, Come From Away. Right on