I could be snotty and say my life has been something Shakespearean... grand, tragic and layered with poetic meaning.
Though I would lean more David Mamet than William Shakespeare.
No iambic pentameter, but vulgar dialogue with a cynical, street-smart edge. Think Glengarry Glen Ross, but on a trading floor with Old Style bottles scattered on the stage.
That famous passage from Macbeth has been with me since I had to remember it in high school.
“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day… Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more…”
It hits differently as I get older. I have realized that most of life is spent in the quiet moments between tragedies and punchlines. That I often carry the weight of every yesterday, learning to dress it up with humor and hindsight.
If my life were a play, it would not be a polished Broadway run. It would be a one-man show in a store front theater with folding chairs and a flickering neon light from a laundromat. A man talking to the ghosts of his own memories, chasing streetcars, lost parade routes, 24-hour diners and daydreams. Wrestling with the thin line between growth and self-delusion. It would be the story of an immature character trying like hell to grow up and rewrite himself scene by scene.
There would be plenty of laughs built in, but right behind the laughs would be the tears nobody sees. The ones that show up during intermission, when the house is dark and you’re alone in the wings wondering if the audience will still be there after the next monologue.
Maybe that’s the goal now?
Not perfection, not applause, but just putting on the damn play with the right balance of comedy and tragedy. Telling it like it is and not bullshitting the audience. Giving the people a few honest lines, a couple laughs and a good cry before the final curtain.
Alright theater goers, today’s sunrise already opened the curtain at 5:18 AM.
You’ve got stage time until 8:30 PM today. Strut around with passion as your conquest for a windmill leads to astonishment.
