Scripted

Life has often been compared to a film.  In that we are all actors on a set. 

Characters being played.

One of the sticking points with this analogy is that actors are knowingly playing a part and are speaking lines that they have learnt.  In other words they're not being themselves or talking their own words.

But it struck me watching a film this evening, that we don't get to choose the script.

An actor learns his lines and then uses them as part of the presentation of the character he's portraying.

And we think that we choose our script and actions and the location of the action.

We don't though.  In fact, an actor has an advantage... they can learn the lines, practise saying them in several different ways with alternative inflections and emphasis.  They get to get them right. To say them with the maximum impact.

We don't - we get one stab at the steak..... And we don't even know that it's the one opportunity. The script we get is pure improvisation.

Improvisation without there being the option of choosing what words to use in the  improv.  In fact we're not improvising the words, we're being improvised - made up as it goes along.  Life is a constant improvisation, with no actor.

We are improvised.

We are an improvisation.

One dictionary definition of improvise is:

To invent, compose, or perform with little or no preparation. ...

I'd amend that to: To invent, compose, or perform with no preparation.

Everything we do, and everything we say, is done without aforethought.  Even the notion of aforethought is done without aforethought.

There is an idea that we decide what we say - but it is an incorrect conclusion added after the action.

You know when you're having a conversation and the thoughts that you're having just don't match up with the words that come out? 

The words that spew forth from your mouth are no more yours, than the actor's script is his.

You're THINKING 'she talking a load of bullshit' and SAYING 'hmmm, that's very deep and intuitive of you, Viv'.

The words - the script - is no more yours than the actor's script is theirs.

Except they get to deliver it pitch perfect with the maximum impact.

Whereas, we falter and stutter and leave unsaid the things that are thought - positive or negative.

Because there is no actor in us speaking the words.  The words just get spoken.

And there is no thinker in us, there are just thoughts.

So...erm..ultimately the analogy is inaccurate, as are all analogies....

But it is the inaccuracy of it that points out the truth - it is the contradiction that emphasises that there is no actor in you that can consciously choose how and what to say.  It's the contradiction that shows you the truth of the lack of a doer, thinker, actor, speaker.

"All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players."  Will Shakespeare.


Far be it from me to amend the great bard, but it's more accurate to say: 

"All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely played."