Problem solving, Maria

A week ago Jami and I went to the Divinity School's Broadway follies, where students play out various scenarios from musicals. Since then my mind has pondered the question these nuns had: How do you solve a problem like Maria? [and its ancillary] How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand? The statement concerns solving a problem "like" Maria, and this problem is compared to holding a moonbeam in your hand. This was certainly a daunting problem the Church had on the eve of the Anschluss. If the "like" Maria problem could have been solved, moonbeams could have been welded in the face of the German blitzkrieg. The problem with moonbeams is, certainly, that their mass is negligible, even if they could be broken off and welded independently of their light source as weapons. Perhaps though, the Panzie divisions could have been delayed if enough moonbeams could have been laid in their path as a diversion.
And holding a moonbeam in your hand is only a problem like Maria. The problem that is Maria was probably solved with electro-convulsive therapy - a scene that is only available on the director's cut. More importantly though-- Maria can ordinarily be solved in time: she will outgrow some of her idiosyncrasies. Actually the problem is not so much with Maria, but with the people who carp about her, who try to solve her. Their song could by better sung, "how do you accept someone who'd different than your conventions allow?"
As we follow this line of thought along, we discover that encoded in Roger's and Hammerstein's musicals is a foretelling of the global war on terror. "Corn as high as an elephant's eye", "Our state fair is a great state fair", "Some enchanted evening, you will meet a stranger": these and other songs bode dire tidings for the future. God help us if on some enchanted evening some stranger might be welding a moonbeam in their hands against us.