October 2, 2012 (Tuesday)
Movies can be a source of enjoyment and entertainment. Don’t you love the scene in which the villain, who snarls and spits and bullies, is humbled by the simple hero, who is virtuous and strong? Love that scene, presented thousands of times on the screen as villain and hero.
In real life, however, the actors may be entirely different from the characters they play. The villain actor may be a faithful family man who takes his family to church, loves his wife and children, and is a good example in his community, while, in fact, the guy who plays the humble hero, is in real life a cad, a jerk, and the guy everybody loves to hate. They are both actors. They play roles. That’s the way they make their living, by being someone they are not.
This is all well and good, as long as it is stage and screen stuff, but when we leave the theater and start living our own lives again, do we play at life and act a part, or are we the real thing? It is said that Francis of Assisi, known in his own time and since as a holy man of God whose life is a shining example of goodness that influences the world toward God, was met by a stranger on the street, who asked, “Are you Francis of Assisi?” “I am,” came the reply. “Take heed that thou be as men believe thee,” the stranger said, as he walked away.
Good advice for us all.
Consider this portait of misery:
My Name is Legion
Within my earthly temple, there’s a crowd;
There’s one of us who’s humble, one who’s proud;
There’s one who’s brokenhearted for his sins,
And one who, unrepentant, sits and grins.
There’s one who treats his neighbor as himself;
And one who cares for naught but fame and wealth.
From such vexing troubles I’d be free,
If, just once, I might determine which is me.
— Edward Sanford Martin
[Who was Edward Sanford Martin? (Click here)]