We are not what we believe we are. We are not what we do in this world. Our lives appear to be happening in the physical sense and are certainly experienced in a physical sense and we are so much more than our physical manifestation of form, we are the one experiencing that form.
Eddie George is an amazing athlete, a damn good actor, and much more than that. Jeff Obafemi Carr is a cool, gifted, actor, artist and he is much more than that.We are not the roles we play in life and we bring those roles too life like magic. We live our roles with such passion and feeling that we fall under our own spell, believing that we have become the role. This is the basis of theater being believable,the passion and life force of the actor living the role , being the role, expressing the character with heart and soul.Believing the role is the foundation of that suspension of belief that brings the audience into the dream of the actor.
Being human is a grand form of theatrical staging. We are born into the world and are not of the world. We inherit a legacy specific to our place , time and circumstance of birth. That legacy is then carried forward through life, developed , evolved, lived,healed, perpetrated, transformed all depending on what we as individuals bring to our characters development. We inherit a role and then we choose how that role will evolve or not.
The true experience of life happens within us. The interactions from the outside are interfaced with the presence on the inside. We are all actors and most of us don't have a clue. We take this world and our physicality so seriously that we lose our connection to the truth that is our presence within, our spirit our life force our consciousness. The Love that we are is abandoned for the sake of what we have been told and have come to believe about ourselves based on what the world outside of us holds as truth and experience.
There is an old Native American tale about the two wolves that dwell within each of us and how the one we choose to feed is the one that prospers.We take on the characteristics of what we "believe " about ourselves. Once we attach to a belief we then see the world according to that belief and seek out support to make our belief the truth. Problem is that our need to be "right" distorts our perception to the point that we no longer see clearly, rather, we see through our own investment in the belief we have attached to.We are the ultimate expression of the character actors art.We create our role, step into it, and then forget that we are acting.
As talented as Jeff and Eddie are they both know when they walk off the stage it takes a few minutes to de-role from their art and ground themselves in their inner spirit.If they were to continue to play out their characters in the world people would say they were nuts, crazy, eccentric...they know the difference and so when they are in character they are 100% there, believable, dynamic. When they go home they are the light within living as Human.
Seeing Two Dog Night was reality check in dedication and art form. Great actors know they are not just the role they play and they have the ability to be that role 100% for the sake of their art, like a special forces solider giving 100% to the mission.The ego is set aside and the expression is spirit on stage. They are actors and they are much more. They are men and they are much more. We are Humans and we are much more.
These are very interesting times. The roles many of us have lived, believing that's what we are, are being rewritten while we are still learning our original lines. We can't count on what we were told as kids being there as rock solid base lines to live by. The nature of the game is changing. The reality we demand be safe and sound is becoming liquid and slippery. Fear says "better find something to hold on to" and life says "better get comfortable with letting go".Faith is recreating itself from being where we go out of fear and need for security to the living expression of not needing to "know" before we say yes to life's opportunities.
If you are ever in Nashville you might check out the Amun Ra Theater and it's offerings of life lived creatively.The roles you'll see acted out there are directed by the heart and the spirit, that's an example we can all learn from. Check them out at http://web.mac.com/jeffocarr/iWeb/amunratheatre/Welcome.html
