What is your role?

Being the Real You

“Maybe being oneself is always an acquired taste.” Patricia Hampl

I watched the Oscars last night. All the beautiful, gifted actors and their equally fabulous spouses and lovers walked the red carpet and told whose clothing designs they were wearing. The spectacle reminded me of the painted and sequined people who live in the Capital in The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. I don’t mean to be critical because I love movies and go every chance I get, but seeing them off script, so to speak, reminds me that acting is just their job and that off screen, they are ordinary people like you and me. They fumble and say inane things. They blubber and carry-on and make bad jokes. I sometimes wonder how a really great actor separates him or her self from the Hollywood persona that their roles require. Do they lose track of the ‘real me’?

Some of the actors said during interviews that with every role they play, they learn something about themselves and about life. We may find it strange that in taking on a made-up role one would discover oneself, but truly, we all have made-up roles—mother, wife, scholar, father, business man, farmer—and none of them tell the whole story. We have to excavate deeper than our various roles to find who is at the bottom of things. The more we learn about our true selves, the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, the more solid we become in our own skins, and the better we are at making smart choices and decisions.

A good question to ask oneself is, ‘Who am I now?’ In whatever roles you play today, there will be a piece of the authentic you. Patching all the pieces together creates the unique tapestry that is your life. It’s worth the work.

In the spirit,
Jane