525,600 Minutes

There are 525,600 minutes in a year. There are 43,829 minutes in a month. There are 10,080 minutes in a week. There are 1,440 minutes in a day. But among all of those minutes, there is one moment. One Moment in One Minute that changes your life.

Last week, I stood on stage for the first time, with all of my castmates, to sing the I'll Cover You Reprise. This time, we were supposed to feel something. We were supposed to be standing at a funeral, next to the casket of someone we loved, mourning through the melody. "Today I had to play at a baby's funeral. She was only 25 hours old." 1,500 minutes. "Make me feel something."

We stood in a circle with our heads hung low to the floor. Some of us weren't taking it seriously. Some of us were laughing silently to ourselves. But the rest of us were remembering. We were recalling the things that no one around us knew, the people that had been with us once, that no one really fully remembered. The way they smelled. The way they laughed. The way they lived. In that circle, we could honor them.

I thought of Camden, the small baby with Downs Syndrome and the biggest grin I've ever seen on any baby, who died a week after I'd held him all day long. I didn't know him well. I guess I didn't have enough time. But I'd visited him at the hospital when he was just a premie in the NICU. His dad held him up to the glass with a scared, proud face. I sang to Camden that day in my cousin's kitchen. Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid. Then a week later, that pure, beautiful life was gone. So when I belted out, "So With a Thousand Sweet Kisses, I'll Cover You," I sang to that little baby again, and remembered the short life that made a huge difference in me.

"Now that's how it should be done," Duane told us, after the song ended on a loud, united note. That's when I realized that it didn't matter if Hunter wasn't the greatest singer, or if I'm not the best dancer, or if Charlotte isn't really a lesbian. It's the heart of this show that means everything. It's the heart that we give it that makes it moving. If we are feeling it, we can make you feel it too. Passion is the difference.