Seasons of Love

To follow up on Rabbi Schwartz's Yom Kippur Sermon for 5773 posted yesterday, here is the music video for "Seasons of Love," written by the Jewish composer and playwright Jonathan Larson, from the hit musical Rent:

And here are the lyrics:

ALL
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Moments so dear.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights
In cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.

In five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure
A year in the life?

How about love?
How about love?
How about love? Measure in love

Seasons of love. Seasons of love

JOANNE
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes!
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Journeys to plan.

Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure the life
Of a woman or a man?

COLLINS
In truths that she learned,
Or in times that he cried.
In bridges he burned,
Or the way that she died.

ALL
It's time now to sing out,
Tho' the story never ends
Let's celebrate
Remember a year in the life of friends
Remember the love!
Remember the love!
Seasons of love!

JOANNE(while ALL sing)
Oh you got to got to
Remember the love!
You know that love is a gift from up above
Share love, give love spread love
Measure measure your life in love.

 And here's the full version featuring the original Broadway cast:



Jonathan Larson received three Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Rent, all posthumous. Originally from White Plains, New York, and a graduate of Adelphi University in Garden City, Larson based Rent on his experience living together with several roommates in an unheated loft in lower Manhattan.  

Larson passed away from a heart ailment in 1996, the day before the show opened off-Broadway, and two weeks shy of his 36th birthday.  Rent went on to become the ninth longest running show in the history of Broadway, and was made into a feature film in 2005.

The Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation was set up by his family friends in his memory, and the Jonathan Larson Grants are now administered by the American Theatre Wing to provide financial support for individual creative theatre artists.

How do you measure the life of a woman or man? Indeed, is there a better answer than, in love?