Are we the hero, or the villain, or merely an unseen extra
A one- time addition to movie that plays out in their mind
We never really know what the expected role we walk into is
The expectations and the ideas that form the masks our character will wear
We can only guess based on our own script how others might imagine
Our lives lived on the stage of their imagination
Are we seen or heard, valued or despised
Perhaps there are clues to the mystery
Maybe we can try to read the cues in a smile
But in another’s eyes we are who we are seen to be
And not who we see ourselves to be.
Perhaps the point is not to try to understand our role in someone else’s story
But rather to play out the character we wish to be in our own eyes
And see whether, when the curtains close we receive applause or jeers
For life is open to interpretation and action to judgment
And we live not one life, but many lives in the worlds
For one life we live in our own story and perception
But we also live other lives trapped within the roles and stories
Of the others whose lives we intersect
And in their imaginations our beings live and move and breathe
In a world and a story that is not our own.
Neil White, 2014
Sign of the Rose 