Today's Marketing Cookie - Least Expected

Today's fortune came from Moonie Garcia of Mansfield, MA. Moonie is a best-selling author and illustrator of the "Sela" children's book series. I've known Moonie very well for 20 years... In fact, I'm married to her. I think she is wonderfully inspiring and you will too when you follow her on twitter: @moonie_garcia

Today's Marketing Cookie sparks a love story.

I am taking a day off of work today because my wife is being honored with an award for her children's book at the New York Book Festival. So, today's post has very little to do with marketing. I hope you will forgive this temporary departure, while I focus on today's fortune and describe how a passionate new romance can appear in your life when you least expect it.

It was the closing performance of the musical, "God Spell" in Nyack, NY. The house was sold out, the band rocked harder than ever, we sang at the top of our lungs, and we had really knocked em' dead! After the final curtain call, I walked onto the lower stage to meet some of the fans, autograph playbills, and thank the audience for coming. At the back of the line, was a director who asked if I would consider playing the lead in a musical written by William Gibson. Wow! William Gibson, the Tony-winning playwright of "The Miracle Worker,"?? 

I accepted without hesitation.

It was a quirky play called, "The Butterfingers Angel, Mary & Joseph, Herod the Nut and the Slaughter of 12 Hit Carols in a Pear Tree" and a cute parody of the nativity story. Mary's a brat and doesn't want any kids, Joseph doesn't want to get married, King Herod is a power-mad whack job and the Angel is all thumbs and can't play the trumpet.

My role, was to be the Angel.

As the lead, I had weeks of rehearsal with Mary, then with Joseph and then finally with King Herod. In real life, Mary was an artsy shop keeper who sold new age books, candles and incense, and practiced meditation between rehearsal sessions. In his heyday, the man who played Joseph was a talented Broadway actor, but was now mostly drinking whiskey and falling asleep during rehearsal. King Herod in real life was a professional wrestler for the WWE and smoked "special cigarettes" behind the theater between rehearsal calls.

I wasn't too sure how all of this would turn out.

With less than 30 days before the opening of the show, the rehearsal schedule opened up to include most of the other characters, including the farm animals. If you are familiar with the nativity story, you would remember that there are donkeys, cows and sheep in the manger when baby Jesus was born. The farm animals were the glue of the play. They had all the jokes, they provided the comic relief and basically served as the subtitles for the play.

The director had connected with a wonderful organization called "The Very Special Arts", which was a program to help mentally disabled children develop social skills through the arts. While it was a wonderful idea, the children had a very difficult time with the delicate nuance of sarcasm required for delivering a well timed joke. 

To make matters worse, the children were wearing large stuffed and furry animal masks, which muffled their voices. The masks also made it extremely difficult for them to see where they were walking. So, the director asked the kids to hold onto each other when walking and to speak a little louder when delivering their lines.

As a result, the farm animals were constantly clustered together, stepping on each other's feet and were continuously all falling down in unison throughout the duration of the play.  Whenever they fell, the cow would take her cow-head mask off in order to stand up again. Whenever it came time for them to say their jokes, they would shout the punch lines at the top of their lungs, which were so muffled by their masks, that no one could tell what they were saying.

Although the jokes would be lost, and the producer was temporarily hospitalized for a nervous breakdown, the show must go on!

Finally, we began having full rehearsals with the entire cast and chorus... including the Cherry Tree.  Among the mayhem of a meditating Mary, a drunk Joseph and screaming farm animals, I was entranced with the Cherry Tree. She showed up in a unraveled sweater, ripped jean shorts over long johns and big black work boots. What a beauty! It was nearing dinner time, and I gathered all the courage I could muster to ask the Cherry Tree if she would like to share a Peanut Butter and Fluff sandwich with me. 

She said yes.

We went outside to eat our Fluff-n-nutters just as King Herod scooted behind the bushes to finish his "special cigarette". We walked awhile and started to talk. I was mesmerized. As we finished off the last of our sandwiches we looked into the sky and saw a shooting star.  While "The Butterfingers Angel" would be an absolute disaster, I had just shared Fluff with my future bride. In fact, I married the Cherry Tree exactly one year later and I for one, know that today's fortune is true. Because passionate new romance appears in your life when you least expect it.