Playing Our Roles

"Some people have to be doing battle with someone, sometimes even with themselves, battling with their own lives. So they begin to create a kind of play in their head, they write the script based on their frustrations"

I know a lot of people like that. Because I am one. And at some time point of time, I am sure that you were one too.

"But the worst part is they cannot present the play by themselves," he continued. "So they begin to invite other actors to join in."

Every now and then, more often than not, we will always find ourselves faced with trying situations that test our wit and character. And often it may not be stemmed from our root; but rather, a by-product of undesirable ineptness or limitations imposed by others, or worse, a collection of it all. Like a cloak of midnight mist surrounding us, suffocating us.

These are the times we have our roles to play. We would think it is our script to write, and an end of the play we already know too well by heart. But others as well, have their own parts to play - for we cannot present the play by ourselves, not ours to be called. And suddenly we discover that we do not own it anymore, we are just a part of it after all.

Yours is a role who keeps asking why. Mine is one who shuns away and holds himself to blame, even before the plot is revealed. There lies our petty little problem, and we puff and puff 'til it swells out of proportions.

Yes, we will always be caught in a web of frustrations every now and then. But be strong and be patient, this is after all part of the play. And like all actors in all plays, we strive to become better after each passage. And at the end of it all, I just want you to know, though how it is accomplished may remain unbeknownst to us now, I just want to be there with you.

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Italized scripts are excerpts from BY THE RIVER PIEDRA I SAY DOWN AND WEPT by the great Paulo Coelho.