Oh! I really really enjoyed this video. It calls you (really you) back to mind. :D
What is so very cool (ironic, maybe) about this is that living truthfully is about living NOT for yourself, and not even "as" yourself, so much as becoming yourself by letting the spirit live through you! (. . . losing your "personality" to save it?)
Performance: This has always been really tough for me. In prepared speeches especially. I always tried to not quite memorize them, so I would "feel" like I was presenting myself honestly, but . . . I think that was more of a feeling than about really being honest in the speech. In some sense a prepared speech has two levels of honesty: It has the honesty of the speech itself, and the honesty of how you present it. The honesty of the speech exists independently of the speaker . . . where am I going with this? I don't know. I like this musing about performance.
Your thoughts about performance make me think back to Soulfest. We saw one band that was supposedly a worship band, but (at least from my group's and my perspective) there was nothing worshipful in their time on stage. The words they were singing were true and contained a spirit of worship in and of themselves, but the show was complete performance.
The lead singer was emulating Elvis level hip gyrating and did not appear to be at all focused on God. In between songs, he would shout phrases like, "God is good, amen?" with apparently no thought to what he was saying. In all respects, it seemed like complete performance with nothing coming from the heart.
Later we saw another band, Manic Drive. They had a voice-over intro detailing their history as vampires, interspersed with Twilight parodies. Hilarious. Their guitarist pretended to be a robot for the entire show. Everything about their show screamed "performance," and yet it was obvious that we were supposed to think that about them.
The difference was that their performance provided a vehicle for the truths in their lyrics. The ridiculous things they did elevated the themes in their songs, and I personally walked away without being turned off. I enjoyed their performance, but it didn't take away from what they were communicating. I didn't have a problem with their over-the-top theatrical performance.
I think it lines up with what you said in your video. "I think if someone knows that you're acting and if you're supposed to be acting, then it's not untrue, but I don't think it's good to be saying something that isn't really from your heart..."
I like what you said about not putting people (and more importantly, perhaps, yourself) in a box. I think when we do, we're not being entirely truthful.
A Year Of Questions is a project begun on March 22, 2010, by seven teens who want to be better at asking questions and articulating answers. This blog exists to make it easier to discuss these questions (because a 500 character limit on YouTube comments is rather limiting). Enjoy!
3 comments:
Oh! I really really enjoyed this video. It calls you (really you) back to mind. :D
What is so very cool (ironic, maybe) about this is that living truthfully is about living NOT for yourself, and not even "as" yourself, so much as becoming yourself by letting the spirit live through you! (. . . losing your "personality" to save it?)
Performance: This has always been really tough for me. In prepared speeches especially. I always tried to not quite memorize them, so I would "feel" like I was presenting myself honestly, but . . . I think that was more of a feeling than about really being honest in the speech. In some sense a prepared speech has two levels of honesty: It has the honesty of the speech itself, and the honesty of how you present it. The honesty of the speech exists independently of the speaker . . . where am I going with this? I don't know. I like this musing about performance.
Your thoughts about performance make me think back to Soulfest. We saw one band that was supposedly a worship band, but (at least from my group's and my perspective) there was nothing worshipful in their time on stage. The words they were singing were true and contained a spirit of worship in and of themselves, but the show was complete performance.
The lead singer was emulating Elvis level hip gyrating and did not appear to be at all focused on God. In between songs, he would shout phrases like, "God is good, amen?" with apparently no thought to what he was saying. In all respects, it seemed like complete performance with nothing coming from the heart.
Later we saw another band, Manic Drive. They had a voice-over intro detailing their history as vampires, interspersed with Twilight parodies. Hilarious. Their guitarist pretended to be a robot for the entire show. Everything about their show screamed "performance," and yet it was obvious that we were supposed to think that about them.
The difference was that their performance provided a vehicle for the truths in their lyrics. The ridiculous things they did elevated the themes in their songs, and I personally walked away without being turned off. I enjoyed their performance, but it didn't take away from what they were communicating. I didn't have a problem with their over-the-top theatrical performance.
I think it lines up with what you said in your video. "I think if someone knows that you're acting and if you're supposed to be acting, then it's not untrue, but I don't think it's good to be saying something that isn't really from your heart..."
I like what you said about not putting people (and more importantly, perhaps, yourself) in a box. I think when we do, we're not being entirely truthful.
I like coffee, too. :)
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