Life as a Movie
Will Shakespeare imagined life as a play, which makes some sense considering his life calling. Being a product of the second half of the twentieth century, I see life as a movie, and the similarities between life and the movies become more striking as I continue to age.
For example, movies generate an energy or life force of their own, independent of the characters’ actions or the plot line. The characters in a movie are not really alive – they only appear to be (if you look behind the TV or movie screen, there is no one there, even though the illusion may be so complete you believe you are a participant in or an observer of a real experience).
Characters in a movie, then, are not really alive. They are illusions, mere vessels through which the screenwriter tells his story. Actors in a play or movie are not alive either. That is, the characters that the actors portray are not really alive – they are merely the vessels though which the actor tells his part of the whole story (just as the actor is, in turn, a vessel for the playwright).
More and more I see myself through which Some Greater Power is telling a story, in which “I” am the Star.
But it is just a story, no matter how “real” my movie seems to me. I am just a vessel and therefore not responsible for my actions, any more than an actor in a movie is responsible for his actions – they were decided for him by the screenwriter, who carries the responsibility for actions, not the actor.
What a hoot to finally realize I am not responsible for my actions and that I cannot be either rewarded or punished for my participation in this story. I am merely an actor playing my part as written, cast, and directed by the Great Producer in the Sky.
For example, movies generate an energy or life force of their own, independent of the characters’ actions or the plot line. The characters in a movie are not really alive – they only appear to be (if you look behind the TV or movie screen, there is no one there, even though the illusion may be so complete you believe you are a participant in or an observer of a real experience).
Characters in a movie, then, are not really alive. They are illusions, mere vessels through which the screenwriter tells his story. Actors in a play or movie are not alive either. That is, the characters that the actors portray are not really alive – they are merely the vessels though which the actor tells his part of the whole story (just as the actor is, in turn, a vessel for the playwright).
More and more I see myself through which Some Greater Power is telling a story, in which “I” am the Star.
But it is just a story, no matter how “real” my movie seems to me. I am just a vessel and therefore not responsible for my actions, any more than an actor in a movie is responsible for his actions – they were decided for him by the screenwriter, who carries the responsibility for actions, not the actor.
What a hoot to finally realize I am not responsible for my actions and that I cannot be either rewarded or punished for my participation in this story. I am merely an actor playing my part as written, cast, and directed by the Great Producer in the Sky.
posted by Old Timer at 9:15 PM
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