Good Beginnings and Happy Endings… and an Okay Middle?

Over the past few weeks, I have been catching up on the AppleTV+ show Schmigadoon. As a musical lover, I enjoyed the first season, and the second season comes in with a similar concept, parodying musicals from the 70s and 80s such as Chicago, Sweeney Todd, and Jesus Christ Superstar.

If you’re into musicals, I highly recommend it, as you can easily hear and pick out the tunes and concepts you know and love.

I just finished watching it, and the final song (spoiler alert below if you don’t want to hear it) really hit home for me and how we view the middle.

Quick Rundown/Background

In the show, the main couple, Josh and Melissa, are bored with their humdrum life and feel like it’s not meeting their expectations. They try to escape this by heading back to Schmigadoon, the musical town of season 1. Instead, they find themselves in the seedy Schmicago, a down-on-its-luck town full of corruption and unhappiness.

I’ve talked before about how in life, I’ve always been looking for the next thing. I look at myself now – I’ve been chronically ill for almost a year, and this is now my life. There is no me riding off into the sunset of getting cured or a happy ending… it’s just the rest of my life.

I realized, this season is essentially them attempting to escape their middle. How relatable is it to want to take a leave from your boring or disappointing middle to find excitement. We probably go on a vacation instead of going off into a magical musical realm, but I get it.

The show ends with the idea that we need to change our perspective about happy endings, and instead focus on the potential beginnings.

Perspective Switching

I was having a conversation with someone last night about how I found their perspective to be negative. Instead of looking at how far they’ve come, they only look at how far they have to go. Of course, it feels like there is never any progress because there isn’t any for them to see. Ultimately, thats a similar message to what the Happy Beginnings Song at the end of Schmicago says.

This is similar to looking for the bright side or being positive. I’ve talked before about toxic positivity so I am always on alert for these messages of never allowing things to be bad.

I drove this week, which was a big deal for me. It would have been nothing this time last year. I know I can’t judge myself by last year… but is that enough progress? Now that I know there is no finish line for me, should I be looking at the happy beginnings I can start? Is that toxic positivity? Can’t things just ever suck?

An Okay Middle

Things can suck, and they do. We just need to be okay with it.

Maybe that’s what embracing the middle is. It’s not about celebrating it or hating it. It is just letting it be without judgment. Not worrying about the happy ending or happy beginning, just being cool with an okay middle.

I guess this is all just leading up to me figuring out and testing out my new catchphrase, “Yeah, I’m okay with it.”