Mostly Effable & Scrutable

Last year, this was a breakthrough ~ so much so that it got added to my profile.

Telling the truth all the time to everyone around you is not necessary. Now that might seem like an obvious thing, but I have struggled with it for a long time. The inner me has not been part of my outer expression. That has bothered me a lot, and I've made an effort to fix it, but perhaps it gives me an advantage to be at least a bit hidden to those who are unwilling or unable to get to know me.

Getting into stage acting has provided some personal insights into how easily people can get wrapped up in thinking of people in terms of how they look, what they do or project themselves. 

When acting, costume, and makeup literally help you flesh your person out. You begin to see the character, and start relating that person's actions and words with their appearance.

Before it is possible for me to project a character on the stage, I need to work out a plausible history that suits that character. The interesting thing is, some people think that the person doing the acting is the character they have seen them portray. I remember a child coming up to me after a show in which my character was nasty and selfish. I was still in costume and makeup. The conflict she felt showed through her eyes, thinking maybe I really was scary until I smiled and spoke to her in my normal way.

In the real world, we need to spend time with someone to really get to know them. Appearances can be way off.

I have mentioned that golf is a passion of mine. Yesterday, the Masters Golf Tournament finished, and this year's champion is Bubba Watson. I just read that Bubba has expressed negative opinions on same sex marriage. I admire his golf swing and enjoyed watching him play really well, but what he or any other professional athlete thinks about something other than how to play their sport matters to me not at all.

It amazes me how disappointed people are when they find out that some public person they have thought of as heroic has a massive "character flaw" they have been "hiding" ~ JFK's affair with Marilyn Monroe ~ O.J. Simpson convicted felon ~ Jim and Tammy Bakker sex and money scandal ~ care to add your own surprising disappointment?

When I started this blog, the title was "Maintaining The Façade". I changed it, convinced that having some sort of cobbled-together personality that I could use for the world was wrong.

What has sadly occurred to me since, is that this façade-creation process is something that everyone does to some extent. We build multiple façades that we put on and take off as we move through our lives; one for home, one for the car (some people's car persona can be very scary!), one for work, and on it goes, dependent on how many different social settings we find ourselves.

All of us are multi-dimensional and the way we express ourselves at any one time might not even hint of a deep, innermost truth...

The Naming Of Cats 

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,

It isn't just one of your holiday games;

You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter

When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.

First of all, there's the name that the family use daily,

Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James,

Such as Victor or Jonathan, George or Bill Bailey--

All of them sensible everyday names.

There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,

Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:

Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter--

But all of them sensible everyday names.

But I tell you, a cat needs a name that's particular,

A name that's peculiar, and more dignified,

Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,

Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?

Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,

Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat,

Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum-

Names that never belong to more than one cat.

But above and beyond there's still one name left over,

And that is the name that you never will guess;

The name that no human research can discover--

But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.

When you notice a cat in profound meditation,

The reason, I tell you, is always the same:

His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation

Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:

His ineffable effable

Effanineffable

Deep and inscrutable singular Name.

T. S. Eliot