"I love acting, it is so much more real than life." That's another quote by Oscar Wilde. His book, The Picture of Dorian Gray really is a classic, and I can't recommend it highly enough. What a gem! With this quote (and many others) Wilde is trying to convey that people are always acting and that we rarely get to see people when they are truly being themselves. Wilde made this observation well before the invention of TV. I'd love to see what he thought of people now!
Nowadays, it is easy to see when someone is being fake. They act like characters on their favorite TV shows or their favorite entertainment personality. The sad part is, that many of them are doing it without even realizing it. Watch the facial expressions that people use. Anger, sadness, happiness, you name it. Now watch the faces young children make when they are experiencing the same emotion. The expressions are rarely similar. When they are, you know that the adult is truly experiencing that emotion. The rest is all about trying to look how they THINK they ought to look given what ever happened. Another example, you ask? Okay, have you ever seen anyone get knocked out? I have on a number of occasions. One thing I have noticed is that when someone is truly knocked out, their body stiffens a bit as they fall and their hands are not thrown out to catch them. I have also seen people fake it. Their hands go out to break their fall, or their bodies just slump easily to the ground... kind of like what an actor does when they PRETEND to get knocked out. These people also seem to need a lot more attention to get them back to their feet. In conversations I often see poor acting too. Usually, when someone is trying to get a point across, they will change their facial expression to something they have seen on TV that worked in a similar type conversation. With people my own age and older, I can sometimes pick out who they are trying to emulate. It is harder for me with younger people though, because I stopped watching TV regularly about fifteen years ago. I guess I will go full circle here and quote Wilde again. In the end, "one's true character is what one wishes to be, more than what one is." So, what do you wish to be? Do you want to stop your friends in their tracks? Stop acting. Stop putting on a stupid expression because you saw Johnny Depp do it. Stop cursing because your favorite rapper can't get through a song without dropping the F-bomb fifteen times. Smile because you feel like it, not because you are expected to after one of your friends says something insulting or stupid. For one day, be yourself. Not the persona you are trying to pull off, but the real you. Try it. It is going to be tougher than you think at first. Really it will be. That's because whether we like it or not, we are all pretending to be something we are really not. Some want to be tough...but are really vulnerable. Some want to seem happy, though they are sad. Some are clumsy, some are nimble. All are actors. Including you. So, who do you really want to be. For me, I want to be smart, kind, funny and strong. While I can be all of those things, sometimes it takes effort. When I am quiet and thoughtful, that is when I am really being me. So who are you?
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