This is a video of my kids playing that song from Moonstruck*. Some people insist that it is better known as "Musetta's Waltz" from the opera La bohème but those people probably spend way too much time doing things like visiting museums and reading books and not nearly enough time watching movies starring Cher.

Moonstruck is a film beloved by my family. (The one I grew up with, that is.) We love the dialogue. We love the old man and his dogs. We love Cher's hair and pretty dress. We love wondering if anyone will satisfactorily answer Rose's question. We love love bites that send lives down the toilet and we love adamantly refusing to be a monument to justice.

But Moonstruck is funny to me because it's about two things, I guess. First, it's about that crazy moon. You know, the one that gives you license to do or say the things that you wouldn't do in the glare of the sun (or perhaps the things you shouldn't do at all). And, then, it's about... family.

So, what's the thread here tying these two things together?

No, really.

I'm asking.

I wonder if it's that after all our mistakes, and after the sometimes reckless choices we make in the name of the moon (or passion), our family still loves us and gives us a place to center ourselves?

But, then, on the other hand, in the movie the family starts in the light of the moon. Cosmo is drawn to Rose's window under the full moon because of his great love for her. Loretta and Ronny are also brought together under the same brilliant moon.

I ask you because you have such a head for knowing. You know?


*This was filmed in the weeks leading up to my kids' piano recital where they performed this duet. At the time they were still learning, as can be gleaned from the direction given to them by their instructor.