XVIII
AS SHAKESPEARE ONCE said, all the world is a stage. This statement is true; one can either be in the play, or sitting in the audience in observation. However, the audience is a very dark place, and very few people will ever be there with you; it is a lonely place. However, one who sits in the audience and watches the light of the play sees things which the actors cannot and can run onstage to help them when they are in need. This person has a constant hindsight for those who are too busy remembering their lines, making their images, and looking ahead.
SOMETIMES A RARE few who live on stage become curious of what is in the darkness of that audience, for they cannot see it. Therefore, they find themselves wandering away from the play trying to discover the darkness. Even a rarer few make it to the audience, and most that do run quickly back onstage in fright of the emptiness which they have seen. Those who do not, who wander but do not find the audience, often find themselves backstage, but they do not know this. They confuse the darkness of backstage for that of the audience, and they find it hard to get back. Most of those wanderers become lost forever. If one wishes to journey to the audience, which some do, find a man who has been there and listen to the tale of his journey. That is when the wise one must decide on being the actor or the watcher.
BUT, FROM TIME to time, the watcher must enter upon journeys from the audience to the stage. A man who lives in that darkness, watching the actors and waiting for when they need him, will sometimes need to take a short part in the play. You see, the watcher must usually obtain the trust of the actor in order to help the actor. For the man destined to be a watcher this should be unproblematic, but sometimes, on very rare occasions, the actor who needs help will not give their trust to a shadow, and the watcher must enter the light of the stage to show them what they are. They will not trust a shadow, no, they will only trust the one who holds their hand and walks beside them in their troubled times.
SOMETIMES A RARE few who live on stage become curious of what is in the darkness of that audience, for they cannot see it. Therefore, they find themselves wandering away from the play trying to discover the darkness. Even a rarer few make it to the audience, and most that do run quickly back onstage in fright of the emptiness which they have seen. Those who do not, who wander but do not find the audience, often find themselves backstage, but they do not know this. They confuse the darkness of backstage for that of the audience, and they find it hard to get back. Most of those wanderers become lost forever. If one wishes to journey to the audience, which some do, find a man who has been there and listen to the tale of his journey. That is when the wise one must decide on being the actor or the watcher.
BUT, FROM TIME to time, the watcher must enter upon journeys from the audience to the stage. A man who lives in that darkness, watching the actors and waiting for when they need him, will sometimes need to take a short part in the play. You see, the watcher must usually obtain the trust of the actor in order to help the actor. For the man destined to be a watcher this should be unproblematic, but sometimes, on very rare occasions, the actor who needs help will not give their trust to a shadow, and the watcher must enter the light of the stage to show them what they are. They will not trust a shadow, no, they will only trust the one who holds their hand and walks beside them in their troubled times.
© 2006 by C. Nicholas Walker | 6:35 PM
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