WORDS ARE WHERE IT ALL BEGINS

Try these on for size:

* If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong
* To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research
* I didn't say it was your fault; I said I was blaming you
* A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory
* I used to be indecisive; now I'm not sure
* Nostalgia isn't what it used to be

A paraprosdokian is a figure of speech with a surprise twist at the end. Stand-ups call it a punch-line. Presidential speechwriters call it a gift. Ted Sorensen, who just died, was one of the best. He helped John F Kennedy with soaring passages like: "The torch has passed to a new generation" and "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

Words have power. Even in this age of visual action and computer sizzle. Actors are only as good as their playwright, presidents only as effective as the writers who help design their public narrative. FDR had: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." Kennedy had: "The new frontier." Bush 1 had: "A kinder gentler America." Obama's narrative is still being written [not written-off as the rival speechwriters would have us believe].

Sometimes, though, words alone don't always cut it. Cut through the layers of ennui or doubt that clog our willingness to embrace them. Having scripted countless political speeches, I've had to listen to finely crafted passages collapse in the mouths of their incompetent presenters. If only they had some music behind them...!

Aha, that's exactly what the American Musical is really all about. Scripts of fine words complemented by orchestrations of equally fine music. There is the Book plus the Score. Try one without the other, and you have dead stage. But when woven together in just the right way, the stage explodes into magic like: "Showboat"... "South Pacific"..."The Sound of Music"...."Gigi"...."My Fair Lady"... "Hair"... "Godspell"..."Music Man"..."Ragtime."

OK, so it's not likely our politicians will take up singing anytime soon. But in the meanwhile listen to some of the songs you love, and imagine these melodies without their words. Or these words without their melodies. Upbeat experiments come to mind: "God Bless America"..."Oh What a Beautiful Morning"..."The Summer Wind" ...."Born in the USA"...."What a Wonderful World."

Oh and by the way -- that last one can only be performed by only one voice: Louie...!

If you had to be told that means Louie Armstrong, then reading this has been a waste of your time. But even if you can't find the right voice to express the right words, both political & religious history report that the best things we do as a species have almost always begun with words....