June 8
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Several years ago, I was hooked on ABC's new TV show Once Upon a Time.
It was a clever concept. Taking the Disney characters we all know and love from our childhood and intertwining them into a complex plot, full of twists, suspense, and drama.
Until season three, when the show started to spiral out of control.
Like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book with too many possibilities, I think the show got away from the writers and they didn't know what to do with it.
The show went from a complex, interesting plot to a cookie cutter series. Each half season, a "new villain" to vanquish. Rinse and repeat.
By season five or so, I was the only person I knew who was still watching it.
And I really didn't enjoy the show. I just needed to see how it ended. I have issues with curiosity...
Once Upon a Time continued to a point where it became a mockery. Keeping it going by any means possible even though the viewership was down, the reviews were bad, and the plot sucked beyond compare.
Even when they "ended" the show at the end of season 6...they still kept the show going.
Season 7 picked up with one of the character's stories several years later.
And I still kept watching. All the way to the very end.
Someone at the network must have finally sobered up and pulled the plug. Because season 7 ended abruptly with one of the sloppiest endings I've ever seen on a TV show.
Plot holes left unfilled. Plot paradoxes galore. Characters completely forgotten about. And just an all-around, lousy, unsatisfying ending.
Some stories need to end before they get out of control.
On the other end of the spectrum, have you ever seen a truly magnificent TV show that was randomly cancelled? Into the Badlands is the show that comes to mind (another show I believe I'm the only person I know to have watched).
The end of the final season set up story loops I had to make up endings for myself.
The point being...
There are some stories that need ending.
The job you hate.
The writing project that is sucking more life out of you than is bringing you joy.
The piece of music you've been working on for way too long, and it's just not happening.
But, on the opposite end, many stories shouldn't end too soon.
I often wonder what the rest of the story could have been for the student who quit music. How the story would have ended had the student hung on just a bit longer and tried some new approaches.
Those are the stories that need to be played out in their entirety. The ones that make a difference in the big picture.
Some stories need to continue and some stories need to end.
The important part is knowing the difference.
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For parents, students, and anyone else who believes that music can and should be a meaningful part of everyone's life.
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