So I was lying in bed, thinking about wedding marches-as you do, which brought me to How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria, from The Sound of Music. I wrote a defense of Baroness Schreider two years ago (and I stand by it) and I'm not sure I've actually watched the film since then, but I've seen it enough times.
There is, I suppose, a fairly strong argument to be made that it's kind of bad to use HDYSAPLM as a wedding march. It implies that there is an answer to the title question and that answer is to marry her off and then either she becomes the husband's problem or he at least takes control of her and she behaves.
I could not disagree more.
Think about the lyrics-what is she doing wrong? Plenty, but why are these things wrong? She's climbing trees, she's, waltzing, singing, whistling, she likes curling her hair. She makes some of the sisters laugh. I can understand these things make you a less than stellar nun (I also think being a nun sounds a little boring but that might be kind of the point of the cloistering, so maybe I'd just be a bad nun too).
But they also would make you a pretty decent governess and/or mother.
And look at the chorus:
How do you solve a problem like Maria
How do you catch a cloud and pin it down
How do you find a word that means Maria
A flibbertijibbet, a will o' the wisp, a clown
...
How do you keep a wave upon the sand
Oh how do you solve a problem like Maria
How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand
Can you do any of these things?
You can't. That's the point. You can't "solve" a problem like Maria.
She isn't a problem, she isn't "a headache" or "an angel. She's a girl."
So, how do you solve a problem like Maria? You find her a life where the things that make her who she is become her strengths, instead of her weaknesses.
And that's why if you want to walk down the aisle to the nuns of The Sound of Music just like Julia Andrews it's okay.
***Obligatory special shout out to my parents who used the March of the Siamese Children from The King and I instead of How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria at their wedding***
There is, I suppose, a fairly strong argument to be made that it's kind of bad to use HDYSAPLM as a wedding march. It implies that there is an answer to the title question and that answer is to marry her off and then either she becomes the husband's problem or he at least takes control of her and she behaves.
I could not disagree more.
Think about the lyrics-what is she doing wrong? Plenty, but why are these things wrong? She's climbing trees, she's, waltzing, singing, whistling, she likes curling her hair. She makes some of the sisters laugh. I can understand these things make you a less than stellar nun (I also think being a nun sounds a little boring but that might be kind of the point of the cloistering, so maybe I'd just be a bad nun too).
But they also would make you a pretty decent governess and/or mother.
And look at the chorus:
How do you solve a problem like Maria
How do you catch a cloud and pin it down
How do you find a word that means Maria
A flibbertijibbet, a will o' the wisp, a clown
...
How do you keep a wave upon the sand
Oh how do you solve a problem like Maria
How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand
Can you do any of these things?
You can't. That's the point. You can't "solve" a problem like Maria.
She isn't a problem, she isn't "a headache" or "an angel. She's a girl."
So, how do you solve a problem like Maria? You find her a life where the things that make her who she is become her strengths, instead of her weaknesses.
And that's why if you want to walk down the aisle to the nuns of The Sound of Music just like Julia Andrews it's okay.
***Obligatory special shout out to my parents who used the March of the Siamese Children from The King and I instead of How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria at their wedding***
