Edelweiss
Posted:July 4, 2024
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Family movie night has become a tradition in my household. Every once in a while a movie sticks out as a family favorite. The Sound of Music is one such movie, especially for my 8-year-old daughter. We watched it several times around Christmas last year. Ever since then, the father, Captain Georg von Trapp, and the song he sings, has stuck deep in my mind. The song “Edelweiss” is about a popular and protected flower found high in the Alps, and symbolizes the people’s pride in their homeland, Austria. As we see in the movie, the song also resonates with themes of new beginnings and nurturing what is good to preserve for future generations.
A fictional story set in Austria in 1938, Captain von Trapp is an emotionally distant single father of seven children and a retired Naval Captain. Nazi Germany had recently annexed Austria and was attempting to force Captain Von Trapp to join the Nazi party and subsequently their Navy. Captain von Trapp was vehemently against joining the Nazis and hated what they stood for. Maria, a beautiful young nun turned governess to the Captain’s children, introduces music and joy back into the household.
There are two times Captain von Trapp sings the song, “Edelweiss”.
First, during a sweet moment in the film, the children’s hard-lined father softens dramatically while singing this tender song with his children. There is rich symbolism here. The Captain turns his focus and intimacy back towards his most precious circle of influence, his family. The song is sung in an intimate family room and marks the moment their family becomes whole again. The second is when Captain Von Trapp performs the song with his family during a festival in front of many friends and fellow Austrians. This time the song emotes solidarity and strength since the song is being sung in resistance against the Nazi shadow overtaking Austria.
Cultivating family relationships prepared Captain von Trapp to share their family’s strength with their community to encourage moral preservation. By singing the song so publicly, they are urging Austrians not to give up. They can beat the evil if they keep their focus on the good. As his family escapes over the Alps into Switzerland, there is a sense of leaving the past behind while maintaining hope for the future.
The time period in which this timeless story took place, much like today, was in the middle of a “Fourth Turning.” This phrase was popularized by Neil Howe in his book, The Fourth Turning Is Here. This fascinating book explores what is known as the recurring generational cycle theory in American History and Western History.
“Looking back at the last 500 years, Howe uncovered a distinct pattern: modern history moves in cycles, each one lasting roughly 80 to 100 years, the length of a long human life, with each cycle composed of four eras—or “turnings”—that always arrive in the same order and each last about twenty years. The last of these eras—the fourth turning—was always the most perilous, a period of civic upheaval and national mobilization as traumatic and transformative as the New Deal and World War II, the Civil War, or the American Revolution.”
According to Howe, the last fourth turning occurred between 1929 - 1946 bookended by World War II. Also according to Howe, the current fourth turning is in full swing kicked off by the Great Financial Crisis in 2008. This is a fascinating book, and I recommend reading it. I agree with the author’s thesis and see many “fourth turning” issues the United States is dealing with including high sovereign debt levels, civil unrest, large wealth gaps, high inflation, a highly polarized political system, etc.
Although times were different in the late 1930s compared to today, I am struck by Captain von Trapp’s love for his country and his family, and the delicate balance of influence these two loves had over each other. I believe that we must all do our part to protect and honor our homeland, much like the Captain did in The Sound of Music. Drawing on the best of the past and cultivating it in our circles of influence will conserve and project civic virtue into our future. This can be done in many ways; building strong local communities, helping our fellow man, supporting and attending local churches, living by The Golden Rule, and creating local businesses and social groups that benefit and enrich our society. Above all, when we teach our children that there is Absolute Truth, right and wrong, and to value hard work, integrity, and honesty, we can look forward to a bright future and a blessed nation.
Edelweiss...
Edelweiss...
Every morning you greet me
Small and white, clean and bright
You look happy to meet me
Blossom of snow
May you bloom and grow
Bloom and grow forever...
Edelweiss...
Edelweiss...
Bless my homeland forever...
Small and white, clean and bright
You look happy to meet me
Blossom of snow
May you bloom and grow
Bloom and grow forever...
Edelweiss...
Edelweiss...
Bless my homeland forever…
References
- Wise, R. (Director). (1965). Sound of Music.
- Rodgers and Hammerstein (1959). Edelweiss. The Sound of Music
- Howe, N. (2023). The Fourth Turning Is Here. Simon & Schuster.
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