By Rom Watson
c. February 23, 2012
In the January/February 2012 issue of The Dramatist, the magazine of The Dramatists Guild, Rich Espey’s column on the D.C./Baltimore theatre scene contained the following paragraph:
Sarah Weissman of Glass Mind sums it all up: “There’s a terrific back and forth when an administrator jumps onstage or an actor plans an event. Whatever we consider ourselves first, we all become everything.”
In context, she was referring to the different roles people take on to help run a business, in this case an ensemble theatre in Baltimore. But I prefer the quote out of context.
“Whatever we consider ourselves first, we all become everything.”
Shorn of its context it becomes more universal. Now it can be applied to life as it is lived.
We start life as a child, become a teenager, become an adult, often become a parent, become a senior citizen, and end life as a crone or curmudgeon. At each stage of life we think we know who we are, but we don’t really, because the constant of life is change. Everything is in continual flux, even our bodies and minds. We’re constantly evolving toward the next stage of life. If we live long enough, we experience all of these stages.
“Whatever we consider ourselves first, we all become everything.”
I find it comforting to know that I will, in the words of Wilde, “run the gamut of all experience.” That I will eventually be all sorts of people while always remaining myself.
It is a strange and wondrous journey.
Even if you live in Baltimore.