That whole acting at work schtick.

You're all working, I take it. Or you've all held down jobs...
Did you ever have to sit through the orientation process?  Maybe a video or a Powerpoint presentation on how to deal with your optimal working self.  Did it include any footage or slides on 'acting' out your roles?  Preparing, like a professional actor for your day behind the counter, the screen, the stall, the used cars, the podium or lectern?

Think, then, on this.

It's crap, isn't it?  It's rubbish.

You pysch yourself for Monday morning.  You do some deep breaths.  Maybe get in a jog or some gym or even weights at home before you head out into the working week traffic.

And you're... Just there again.  No significant role change. Neither good, bad, bit-part, lead, comic, straight or otherwise.  You're just you.  And you look down at your feet at some point and it may occur to you that minutes or hours ago those feet were planted in your kitchen, outside the shower stall, naked in the bedroom,.  Perhaps you do the same with your hands. They were helping you eat not so long ago in a place far more conducive to eating.  They were scrubbing off the night dust.  They were feeling the warmth of your lover.  They were embracing a child.

And now they're working.

It's not much of an act is it?  By this, I don't mean that the performance itself isn't sterling. I'm merely saying that if this is acting, why the fuck do we hold fast to celebritydom?

The fact remains that any actor worth their salt gets a lot of time to prepare for a role.  Often months. Often years, if the paycheque allows. And then, after a run of weeks or months, the role is gone, unless reprised or serialised or syndicated.  And they move on to the next one. Often with a lot of time to enjoy the fruits of their labour.

We don't get to move on.  Not in such a dramatic and exhilerating fashion, leastwise.

At the end of today's performance, we'll wake up again in our own Trumanesque worlds, with our own Trumanesque doubts or blithe ignorance. And we'll repeat and rinse ad nauseum.

We aren't actors.  These aren't acts.  When the slides or video footage rolls, turn your head away.

Breathe deep.  Make the most of it. And live, as we do, in the hope that one day, we too will enjoy time to prepare more thoroughly for the lives we want to lead. Perhaps even get time out to genuinely enjoy the snoozer moments. The sunlight.  The rain.  The vista.  The relaxed gatherings. The coming of Spring.  The middle of Autumn...

And as you close your eyes and turn away, tell the What Colour Is My Parachute crowd to go to hell.

Alright. I've gotta get back to work now.

A song before I leave then,...

The Good Thing.