Ahhhh, gotta love Wednesday - theater day.
Having embarked on Sunday on the Intensive Discipleship Program (YWAM Publishing), I figured it was a good time to think about new ways of doing...what I need to live instead of do. I also figured the book would be good for focus. First topic: Love. As in, "for everyone." (And I don't mean that "Love has no gender" stuff.)
So. Back to Wednesday. There are a few people in my troupe that I have trouble loving. Because, y'know, I'm a regular sinful not-so-awesome human being. But hey, that's why we work on stuff. So this morning I thought about one particular girl I'm not so fond of. I thought, I'm going to try to love her today. Dear God, please give me a hand...because I'm probably going to screw this up royally.
I then proceeded to screw up royally by completely forgetting about it.
"Hamlet" is a fascinating play. Some of the more well-known material are the scenes in which Lord Hamlet's would-be girlfriend Ophelia is mad. Not just feigning insanity, like Hamlet himself, but actually bonkers. I have a friend who isn't much for acting in front of people. She is a wonderful person who gets her kicks in the costuming room because she loves sewing and who will go out in public wearing an ancient Greek chiton, and yet is very nervous performing in front of people. She does want the role of Ophelia this year however, and enjoys doing the mad scene, and is actually really good at it.
As a troupe we are going through the play, and we did the first of these "mad" scenes today. Our wonderful director had my friend do Ophelia. She did a magnificent job, until the fact that she was on a lit stage in front of a bunch of people got to her, at which point she tentatively requested a replacement and departed for the costuming room. I waited until I could get offstage (I was there too, as the young noble Horatio) and then went and found her to let her know how she was and that she did excellent and that I was proud of her for trying despite the difficulty.
After rehearsal ended, not long after, the girl I had resolved to look at differently came up and asked how she was doing. "She's doing fine. Just got nervous."
"She did a great job." she said. "Just making sure."
"She did, didn't she? I love her. She's awesome."
"Yeah," she agreed, "she really is."
I discovered to myself later that my feelings about this person had completely changed, now that I had seen something about her like that, concern for someone she didn't know particularly well (my friend is not the most social of people either).
Then I remembered my resolution from earlier. I had not done my best to love this person or even to like her. I had been tricked into it, as it were.
Lesson here? Undoubtedly. Just slightly too complicated to put into a handy little aphorism or moral.
Having embarked on Sunday on the Intensive Discipleship Program (YWAM Publishing), I figured it was a good time to think about new ways of doing...what I need to live instead of do. I also figured the book would be good for focus. First topic: Love. As in, "for everyone." (And I don't mean that "Love has no gender" stuff.)
So. Back to Wednesday. There are a few people in my troupe that I have trouble loving. Because, y'know, I'm a regular sinful not-so-awesome human being. But hey, that's why we work on stuff. So this morning I thought about one particular girl I'm not so fond of. I thought, I'm going to try to love her today. Dear God, please give me a hand...because I'm probably going to screw this up royally.
I then proceeded to screw up royally by completely forgetting about it.
"Hamlet" is a fascinating play. Some of the more well-known material are the scenes in which Lord Hamlet's would-be girlfriend Ophelia is mad. Not just feigning insanity, like Hamlet himself, but actually bonkers. I have a friend who isn't much for acting in front of people. She is a wonderful person who gets her kicks in the costuming room because she loves sewing and who will go out in public wearing an ancient Greek chiton, and yet is very nervous performing in front of people. She does want the role of Ophelia this year however, and enjoys doing the mad scene, and is actually really good at it.
As a troupe we are going through the play, and we did the first of these "mad" scenes today. Our wonderful director had my friend do Ophelia. She did a magnificent job, until the fact that she was on a lit stage in front of a bunch of people got to her, at which point she tentatively requested a replacement and departed for the costuming room. I waited until I could get offstage (I was there too, as the young noble Horatio) and then went and found her to let her know how she was and that she did excellent and that I was proud of her for trying despite the difficulty.
After rehearsal ended, not long after, the girl I had resolved to look at differently came up and asked how she was doing. "She's doing fine. Just got nervous."
"She did a great job." she said. "Just making sure."
"She did, didn't she? I love her. She's awesome."
"Yeah," she agreed, "she really is."
I discovered to myself later that my feelings about this person had completely changed, now that I had seen something about her like that, concern for someone she didn't know particularly well (my friend is not the most social of people either).
Then I remembered my resolution from earlier. I had not done my best to love this person or even to like her. I had been tricked into it, as it were.
Lesson here? Undoubtedly. Just slightly too complicated to put into a handy little aphorism or moral.
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