You are a hero

You and I are the heroes and heroines of our own productions.  We are in every shot: the lead character.  We host and entertain support characters or minor bit parts, battle our way through convoluted plots and follow a script that is perpetually re-written from the time we became aware that there IS a script.

Cast members over-play their roles, under-play their roles, butt in at unexpected moments and create a new scene, exposing parts of ourselves we thought were well hidden or didn’t exist.  Themes become evident.  New dynamics form, the setting changes as the story meanders and banks sharply left.  It could end at any moment, mid-sentence, with no conclusion besides the conclusion of every scene.

We believe we are the Directors but discover the Director’s chair is empty as our personalities drive the design, as we become discovered to ourselves and others.  We deal with the unexpected, the catastrophic, the beautiful.  And perhaps we start to realize that this particular movie, our movie, is not the axis movie at all – there are another seven billion running at this exact moment, a spattering in which we play a supporting role or a bit part.

And then we come back.  Because the one character we identify with most strongly, know so well, see ageing in the mirror in the bathroom, and through whose eyes we see and through who’s brain we interpret things every day, is ourselves.  We can’t escape the lead role and trying to watch someone else’s movie takes such effort that we choose a few whose movies we try to understand, even if it’s for snippets.  And then the spotlight returns and the drama continues.