Hide And Seek
Why do the charmed play hide and seek
and flee the story in the wings,
as if disporting on the stage
could set alight the curtain fringe?
Illusion's limelight's highly prized
and channelled sentiment extolled
If structured context cramps the style,
another's script makes players bold
The play's the thing, so says the Bard,
our psyche's lineaments laid bare
We revel in the story told
and all vicarious life is there
The Safety Curtain functions well
as acts meet their appointed ends
Perplexing shadows haunt the wings
Beyond, the brave face skylit lands
So who'll forsake bewitching masks
and don his natural God-given role
and tread the existential boards
and free the glittering eyelets' soul?
©RosyCole2013
...at the still point, there the dance is.”
—Burnt Norton - T. S. Eliot
About Rosy
Rosy Cole was born and educated in the Shires of England and now lives on the West Sussex coast. A professional writer for thirty years, she has worked as a Press Officer and Publisher's Reader and is a member of the Society of Authors (UK), the Historical...
Connections
Causes Rosy Cole Supports
World Vision, International Prison Outreach, Salvation Army, Emmaus Project, Poor Clares, DogsTrust, BUAV (against animal testing) WWT (Wildfowl &...
Rosy’s Favorite Books
Restoration - Rose Tremain, Rites of Passage - William Golding, The Waves - Virginia Woolf, To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf, Sunset Song - Lewis Grassic...
I Have to Admit
I have never set a stage on fire. But I have tripped over many a set piece in my time.
Well, electricity and lighting is your forte...
so you'd know how to trip a switch. But I bet you chewed out the props manager a few times :)
Appearance vs. Reality
Rosy,
Is the unifying metaphor "all the world's a stage" on which we each play many roles that involve illusion and the wearing of masks?
I've always been intrigued with the idea of art as vicarious experience in which we playfully ("hide and seek") escape from being our real selves. Imagined possibilities ("reveling") can be so much more attractive if not addictive than mundane realities, as you surely know better than I as an accomplished novelist. I am reminded of Emily Dickinson's lines, "The revery alone will do, if bees are few." [associations between "reveling" and "revery']
As a tangential issue, you are no doubt familiar with our existential predicament being compared to improvisational acting; that is, daily living for each of us is an ongoing improvisation whose outcome is entirely determined by our interactive choices and consequences, as opposed to scripted dramas (lives) "run" by a director (fate or God).
With your faith, where do you think daily life falls on this spectrum from improvisation to following a script?
Brenden
Brenden,
In the poem, I was thinking not so much of the roles we perform naturally as part of the survival of the species, but of those we adopt in order to 'cut a figure' and to duck responsibility for ourselves. Or even the covert devices used to 'tweak' situations. (Politicians are very good at this!)
I was also thinking of the popular latter-day trend of seeing life through the lens of a film set, those whose actions must mimic episodes on the 'big screen', or their favourite soap-operas, if they are to feel they're alive and kicking!
Art as escape? That's a difficult one. The first thing to understand is that in no way is the dedicated practice of an art an escape. It is not really a vicarious experience. The one thing such pursuit forces you to do is to confront yourself. This can be a ruthless and painful process. It also forces you to face painful truths about humanity in general and about our relationship with the Universe.
Yes, I do find that writing (and to a lesser extent, singing and painting) helps to put life's challenges and traumas into perspective, which would otherwise overwhelm. This is a form of escape, but a constructive one, I feel. At the end of the day, something good emerges out of the chaos.
As regards your last question, this is my personal view: 'Faith' is a fickle word. To many, it implies a kind of mantra, a cherished illusion, one persistently applies from the outside so that circumstances are translated into a copeable narrative.
However, to me, the Christian path is existential. I don't know where it will lead. It transforms situations from within. The 'improvisational acting' is inspired by God insofar as I invite him into the picture. Yes, I make (howling!) mistakes, but he turns them all to the good when included in the equation and ultimate disaster is averted.
For the believer, Christianity is not a 'bolt-on', not mere hope that if we all strive to be good and kind to each other, the world will be a better place. There is some mileage in that, of course, but all too often it lacks power in the face of antagonism and resistance.
As I see it, God invites us to participate in his ongoing Creation. He needs the unique gifts of every single one of us to do the best job possible for everyone else. We don't have to assent. We have a choice.
Thank you for your interesting and thoughtful comments which are always most welcome.
Rosy
Rosy, Thank you so much for
Rosy,
Thank you so much for generously devoting your valuable time to writing such a detailed response. Especially interesting and significant are your thoughts on authenticity (being one's self vs. "cutting a figure"). I wrote at some length on this in a post ["Being Authentic vs. Faking It"] and I agree with you that "image" vs. reality is increasingly of concern in politics.
A second timeless and universal question is art imitating life vs. life imitating art ("seeing life through the lens of a film set"), which raises all sorts of implications/concerns about the impact of media on behavior and cultural trends.
My appreciation to you for sharing all your insights on these topics.
Brenden
You are truly welcome
Certainly, our lives seem to reference entertainment these days in a big way and there can be no doubt that it influences our thinking and mode of being in good, but also in largely negative ways.
There is increasingly a case for the distinction between 'art' and 'entertainment' which makes 'life imitating art' vs 'art imitating life' a subject for much wider debate. It may bring into play laws of the universe we're not aware of, or seldom consider to be related, but are quietly operating behind the scenes.
It could be down to a touch of prescience, but the curvature of some of my work has borne out in real life, way before the fact. This was especially the case in Entertaining Angels (not edited or published yet, and not, strictly speaking, historical, although it covers both World Wars and ends just before the millennium.) In that, I did what I never normally do (characters are generally composites with prevailing traits) I based one of two main protagonists upon my mother. The closing years of her life and the circumstances of her death were uncannily prophetic which begs many questions about how far human beings order their own fate.
I must look out the post you mention re fakery. The question of life vs theatre and who is really doing the acting has fascinated me for years. (I have quite a collection of Venetian masks!) What I do believe is that it takes a scrupulously honest person to be a compelling actor on stage. But then, I've often thought that all the serious acting is done in an everyday context. For real.
As T S Eliot says in Burnt Norton: '...human kind/Cannot bear very much reality.'
How much do we dare to change the world?