More than a year has passed since I'd flipped on the radio and settled in for the two-hour drive from Fayetteville to re-experience the bustling Branson Landing along Lake Taneycomo, along with a couple of shows.
One of the best parts of coming home to the Ozarks in 1995 was having such a national entertainment metropolis a relatively short drive to the northeast. Tens of thousands of Northwest Arkansans visit this getaway city each year.
I can't return to the recreation mecca without strolling the Landing downtown where now I can watch wild-eyed folks scream as they glide high over Lake Taneycomo on the new high-tech, double-seater zip-line.
It's become mandatory that I see a "Legends" show at the Dick Clark Theater on 76. This time around, I also headed up the hill to see the much-touted production of Jonah at the Sight and Sound Theater.
A lot to pack into a weekend. But driving back home, I'm always glad I did.
Let's see, what can I possibly tell valued readers about the Old Testament account of the Hebrew Jonah's travails that they don't already know? The whale? The wicked city of Nineveh near modern-day Mosul in Iraq?
I can assure you that this rousing production, while far from a Biblical documentary (the announcer makes that clear beforehand), became quite literally a feast for my eyes and spirit.
For instance, I'd never believed the show's producers could make an audience of thousands feel it actually was seated beneath the sea with the fish, sharks, jellyfish and, yep, even that enormous whale that swam slowly above them.
They accomplished exactly that in a way where the special effects, including massive stage props of ships and building scenes, were nothing short of mesmerizing.
At one point the silken blue ocean "waves" (being undulated on poles by folks in black ninja-like costumes) came crashing off the stage to settle at the tips of my own sandals about 60 feet away.
From the vividly colorful period costumes to a state-of-the-art sound system that made each voice-crystal clear, this particular audience member (who has experienced stunning stage productions of Les Miz 14 times) was impressed.
In fact, I was so taken with the music that I asked an employee if the music and singing had been prerecorded. I was assured the the actors, dancers and singers, with a couple of background exceptions, were doing their own thing live, sometimes even into the audience.
I also was told I was far from the only person to ask that very question.
More than the scriptures describing Jonah's three days in the belly of a whale for failing to heed God's instruction for him to travel to the evil city of Nineveh and warn its population of God's displeasure and threatened destruction, I found myself reflecting on the deeper spiritual message Jonah's fearful challenge also presents for each of us over a lifetime.
I can assure the young ones out there that we who've survived more than six decades have faced our own reluctance to willingly encounter the challenges we felt called to do, yet chose to avoid.
Like the actor portraying Jonah in this production (they make it a practice not to name the cast), most of us have run away from facing many overblown fears.
We each invariably will face our own terrors if we live long enough. Avoidance and denial usually are far preferable to confronting our Ninevehs in most instances.
But, as with the Northern Israeli prophet who finally got God's message after the whale rudely deposited Jonah back on dry land, we can overcome our "Ninevehic" fears by facing them as we so often are urged to do by that nagging voice inside. At least that, for me, was one take-away analogy from the two-hour show.
The fear that paralyzed Jonah, even with his status as a prophet in the Eighth Century B.C., would be comparable to God commanding one of us to travel to Syria next week to warn the subhuman animals of the Islamic State that God would destroy their caliphate in 40 days.
The Legends show, featuring Bucky Heard and Justin Clark perfectly imitating the animated Blues Brothers and Cynthia Minx belting out what seemed like a reincarnation of the late Whitney Houston followed by a remarkable look and sound-alike Dean Z as Elvis, was as entertaining as those shows always are. I felt inspired enough to devour an entire bag of popcorn during intermission.
With so many performers at both shows being Broadway-worthy, I naturally wondered about the enormous supporting casts in all 100 of the live Branson productions. I'm talking mostly about the dancers and background singers whom I'm told were professionally trained at places such as Juilliard.
It struck me how their largely unheralded daily contributions on the stages (often in two daily shows during the tourism season) provided the crucial backbones for each of these shows, along with the stage and production staffs.
Driving back to Fayetteville, I understood that I'd returned to Branson to rediscover exactly what I'd left behind about two years ago: An enjoyable stay that stored away even more fond memories.
Even more importantly, I was still reflecting on all the Ninevehs I've sought to avoid in my own life and the results of my reluctance.
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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.
Editorial on 09/06/2014