Fiddler on the Roof

I was fortunate enough to receive tickets to see Fiddler on the Roof as a present. Not that I haven’t seen it before. I have the movie on VHS, the soundtrack on my Ipod and have seen the play multiple times as presented by local theatre groups.

The story has many interpretations, but for me it is a reminder of how change can significantly conflict with what I hold as fundamental beliefs. How hard it is to weigh the changes and determine which are needed for the good and which are not. How what I wanted as change when I was young doesn’t seem so important now. At one time I saw tradition as a problem but now I am a part of the tradition and maybe part of the problem. I can better see what my father saw, what my grandfather saw and how it may have impacted their decisions. How they dealt with the conflict between change and tradition. How they bent, trying to avoid going over the breaking point. And maybe they did go over their breaking point and had to come back or were unable to.

I most strongly relate to the father’s struggle to reconcile what he believes with his love for his family and wanting them to be happy. The story gives a glimpse into the struggles that go on within him. Thoughts he can’t share openly, since it would compromise his position as head of the household, yet deserves contemplation. He turns to God for help and we get to hear his conversations between himself and God. Although God doesn’t answer, he continues to talk, he bends and continues on.

There is no resolution at the end of the story, just another major change to be dealt with and adapted to.