Is Life is an Act?
My church planting class this week has pretty much been soaking up my time and mental energy, but I came across a fascinating quote in a new book, Branches to Heaven. What follows flies in the face of common wisdom and strikes me as paradoxical—qualities good enough to earn a second look. Ask yourself:
Have you ever considered whether there may be an obligation in life, or a great challenge, for you to take on a role or assume an identity, based on a persistent concept of the person you ought to be? Furthermore, is it possible that to attempt such a thing would be an act of authenticity rather than duplicity?
Read this slowly.All these people I admired…were all dramatic personalities, making a strong impact. None of them bore any resemblance to the ordinary, commonplace, faceless citizen. Each had a characteristic style, not merely of writing or thinking but a style of presenting himself to the outside world. They attracted me because in their different ways they all treated life as if it were an art. I do not mean that they posed. They simply recognized, intuitively, that the presence of other people, even the humblest and fewest, constitutes an audience, and towards an audience one has certain duties. They are always giving a performance in the role for which they have cast themselves, making up the play as they go along, and tacitly inviting others to collaborate… It is no mere matter of posing, of permitting oneself to trifle or be insincere. Rather it is the recognition of a duty that is binding on everyone, but one that is instinctively accepted by those who fall into this type… Such people are in fact fulfilling a moral duty. The Creator…has equipped them with a certain identity, and they are all the time delightfully aware of this identity and out to get, and to give, as much fun as possible with it. – John Wain
What are your reactions to this idea? What makes it more interesting is that John Wain (not to be confused with the swaggering gunman) had a specific person in mind when he wrote this characterization. Bet you can't guess who he was talking about.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
The Subtle Art of Living
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11 comments:
The Creator…has equipped them with a certain identity, and they are all the time delightfully aware of this identity and out to get, and to give, as much fun as possible with it
This is a very interesting concept. But, how does one go about recognizing just what his "identity" is.
Was it C.S. Lewis, Mark Driscoll, or Jack Bauer, that he had in mind?
Ched,
It's John Wain... The Duke... We're supposed to be cowboys. I had no idea that he was a theologian. If I was taking my pick, I'd be Hiro Protagonist, but if my life so far is any indication, I'll probably get to be Mr. Smee
Hmm, interesting, reminds me a little of Gerard Manly Hopkins Poem:
"I say more: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is --
Christ. For Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces."
Also the fact that we are all images, fallen images that must work at being the Image of God. We must act well. We must act like Christ, we must be Christ-like: Christians. We must love because we don't love. We have to act good in a sense before we are good.
Also, sorry, Taliesan has a poem sort of about this here: http://taliesan.wordpress.com/2006/12/11/credo-ut-intelligam/
I'm not very smart, but in the passage you quote isn't Wain getting at what Paul writes about in I Corinthians 12? The exercise of one's spiritual gifts would indeed be equivalent to playing a role, though not in the narrow, thespian sense of that phrase. It simply means (inter)acting with others in the way God has called you to.
Off-topic: as I was sitting here thinking about I Cor. 12, it struck me that it'd be interesting to read that chapter against Ezekiel 37 (the prophet's preaching to the valley of the dry bones).
On a more serious note, while I think what Wain says is nice and lovely, it puts a little too much focus on performance for man's sake rather than the performance of obedience for God's sake. Also, we're not all cast as larger-than-life characters, and there is danger in wanting to be one as the larger-than-life man is always in danger of drawing attention away from the Author of Life. I don't meant to be disparaging, but I think I frequently read interpretively, grabbing the good intent of the author and ignoring the dangerous ideology that is there as well. I'm trying to work on that... (
The interesting interpretation reminds me of the debate between fate and free will. If we are indeed free to be whomever we choose, then it shouldn't matter to anyone what "role" we play - as it is our choosing. But if there is indeed some fate guiding our destiny, then we would increasingly discover that we were being "cast" into a role not of our choosing but of God's choosing and then the temptation would be to relish that role and play it to its logical conclusion.
Therefore, when I read this quote, my mind is drawn first to Judas - ever the villian, but also fated to be one just as Jesus was fated to die on the cross - and then to John the Baptist - whose entire purpose in life was foretold ere he was born, and then, having fulfilled his purpose, he was slain.
But maybe we're all Judas or John the Baptist and just don't realize it...
To answer a question, my guess is Winston Churchill as a good example of a man who played his life to the hilt. mom
I've enjoyed listening to this conversation progress. I'll just weigh in briefly...
I like this bit from Stejahen:
We must act well. We must act like Christ, we must be Christ-like: Christians.
And this as well, from "anonymous":
if there is indeed some fate guiding our destiny...then the temptation would be to relish that role and play it to its logical conclusion.
Also, John B. (while stretching self-deprecation to the breaking point :)
I'm not very smart, but in the passage you quote isn't Wain getting at what Paul writes about in I Corinthians 12?
I echo and agree with all of this. At the same time, it's right to contrast such "acting" with the pitfall of a dramatically projected ego, as Gymbrall suggests and Ched hints at.
How do you find safety? I think we all suspect that the answer won't be a simple, formulaic one. How could it be? Seems to me that the one barrier between imaginatively participating in one's sanctification and creatively enhancing one's ego is elusive in itself: faith.
But this is what God calls us to do, working out our salvation with fear and trembling. Surely some of that fear is reserved for the thought that what we're striving to present to the world isn't, in fact, Christ, but just more of me.
We must live with this possibility while prayerfully trying to "become who we are." After all, an attempt to do anything at all requires a performance of some sort.
We're all called upon, as Christians, to "play our lives to the hilt." As Leon Bloy says, "Any Christian who is not a hero is a pig." Sometimes the line between the two is thin. It's a risky task.
Further thoughts? I said I would be brief, but I lied. And now it's also contingent upon me to reveal the identity of the man whom the quote described, so I may as well revel in the lengthiness of this comment:
Who is he?
C.S. Lewis?
Mark Driscoll?
Jack Bauer?
Winston Churchill?
Or Aidan?
The answer is...
C.S. Lewis (of course)
I think that there's truth in the idea that we behave differently when we feel we have an audience and often for the better. Obviously this lends itself to hypocrisy in those who value a virtuous image over real virtue, but for those really trying to be right with God, the opinions of others and the push to be a good example can be a positive motivating force.
I think the opposite is true, too. People tend to behave more badly when they think they have no audience. That's why the internet can bring out the worst in people who see its anonymity as a shield against accountability for their actions. It's also the reason that normal, supposedly upstanding people can have sex with children in Thailand - if no-one who looks to them as an example is watching, the temptation suddenly grows tenfold.
I actually like the idea that we are 'playing to an audience' in a sense. Sometimes when I'm trying to overcome a particular failing I find myself imagining that someone is watching everything I do. It actually does feel easier to do right.
I actually like the idea that we are 'playing to an audience' in a sense...It actually does feel easier to do right.
This is a telling point, Chosha. Thanks for bringing it up. There's no doubt in my mind that this is one reason Christians are commanded to live in community. We are all trying to "play" our way into Christlikeness, and an "audience" helps...we're all acting for the glory of God, through his grace, and for the sake of each other.
On the artistic front, C.S. Lewis commented on this need for an audience:
It is impossible to write one’s best if nobody else ever has a look at the result.
- C.S. Lewis, The Letters of C.S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves
Of course, there is always the audience of God himself.
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