The World Is A Stage, Recognize Your Most Important Role

September 28, 2019,

Your life is a performance in motion. Fluid at times, best when surprised and always subject to review.

Widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s greatest dramatist, English poet, playwright and actor William Shakespeare once sighed the timeless words, “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts.”

What act are you currently in now?

Have you played your greatest role yet? Your most important one?

Respectfully, but hopefully, it extends beyond successfully raising your children.

Do you know what your role is in this sometimes confusing and intense life journey that might strongly impact others not related to you? Possibly the world?

You realize it is important to find out what it is? Right?

The cinema at times so adeptly impresses upon us the importance of our roles in family, friendships and society.

It is so important to play that role well when you enter the stage.

fciwomenswrestling.com femcompetitor.com, Universal Pictures photo credit

The Andromeda Strain is a 1971 American science fiction thriller film produced and directed by Robert Wise.

Based on Michael Crichton‘s 1969 novel of the same name and adapted by Nelson Gidding, the film stars Arthur Hill, James Olson, Kate Reid, and David Wayne as a team of scientists who investigate a deadly organism of extraterrestrial origin.

When we first viewed this film, what impressed us the most was how chilling it actually was, especially in the early 1970s when, comparatively speaking to today, far less was known about the power of viruses and biological strains and how they can decimate a human population.

The storyline goes, “After a satellite, a U.S. government project code-named Scoop, crashes near the small rural town of Piedmont, New Mexico, almost all of the town’s inhabitants die quickly. A military satellite recovery team tries to recover the satellite but is stopped in mid-sentence. Suspecting that the satellite brought back an alien organism, the military activates an elite scientific team it had previously assembled for this type of emergency.”

What is most prominent is the roles that the biologists and scientists called upon to identify what this never before seen problem is and the challenge of solving it before it spreads.

This organism turns your blood into sand.

What caused it?

How do they stop it?

What can they do to prevent it from happening again?

One moment they are at dinner parties and enjoying time with their friends and family, then, in the blink of an eye, there is a knock at the door and without hesitation they are called upon to play their role, play it well and do it in a timely manner or life as mankind knows it will change forever.

They have not previously been on that major stage. Now they are.

It is an eerie masterpiece.

The above paid professionals played their roles well to the benefit of their society.

What is our responsibility to our fellow citizens if they are in need and we are not getting paid?

In our circle we knew of a true life experience where a father coached his daughter in high school tennis and her team played in a system paid for by tax payers where one of the teams was from a private high school.

He found out that the private school had the power to disqualify the girls in the public school system by not telling them the time of their championship match so they would mistakenly fail to show up.

Think about.

Some 15-17 year girl fights through her matches all season long to reach the championship rounds only to be treacherously uninformed so a girl from the private school with all of the advantages can take her trophy without having the skills or guts to fight it out on the courts.

And you want to know what?

There’s more.

He also found out that even when the girls from the private school lost, they were awarded All-League certificates while the girl from the public school who defeated her did not.

Afterwards the girl from the private school could negotiate with colleges to receive a scholarship.

Very clever.

Very nice arrangement condoned by the leadership of the public schools.

So, for those of you reading this, if you were him and you were aware of that situation, what would you do?

Tell the School Board? They already know about it and don’t care.

Leave?

He could. His daughter made it to the championship round and would eventually get a scholarship. He already had what he wanted. If fact, the School Board was extremely nice to his daughter who was an academic star.

As to the other girls, who would speak for them?

He would.

In life, just because we received our sweet deal, should we forget about the other less fortunate immigrants on the boat?

Symbolically speaking, he got back on his horse and rode back into town to fight it out with the School Board and the leadership of the private school by contacting Congress Persons and Senators, 90 percent of whom could care less as well.

Finally the Department of Education in San Francisco did.

After a year-long struggle, the winners would now receive the All-League certificates as opposed to the losers.

Imagine that. What a concept.

That real life experience reminds us of watching perhaps what could be described as the best western of all time.

It is Shane, featuring Alan Ladd.

fciwomenswrestling.com femcompetitor.com, Paramount Pictures photo credit

Shane is a 1953 American Technicolor Western film from Paramount Pictures, noted for its landscape cinematography, editing, performances, and contributions to the genre.

Shane stars Alan Ladd and Jean Arthur in the last feature (and only color) film of her career.

The classic also stars Van Heflin and features Brandon deWilde, Jack Palance, Emile Meyer, Elisha Cook Jr., and Ben Johnson.

Here is the storyline.

Shane, a skilled, laconic gunfighter with a mysterious past, rides into an isolated valley in the sparsely settled Wyoming Territory, some time after the Civil War. At dinner with local rancher Joe Starrett and his wife Marian, he learns that a war of intimidation is being waged on the valley’s settlers. Though they have claimed their land legally under the Homestead Acts, a ruthless cattle baron, Rufus Ryker (Emile Meyer), has hired rogues and henchmen to harass them and drive them out of the valley.

Shane could easily leave. It is not his fight, but if he does, the settlers do not stand a chance.

He stays. They survive.

Though the story is a very powerful one, the depth of the human aspects of friendship, speaking up for those who cannot defend themselves and the simple honor and integrity displayed is hard to do justice with words.

Even though we are not paid to help and are not required to help, if we have the skill sets to make a difference in our fellow human beings lives, is it our responsibility to stay and fight for them?

Life can be a tough task master.

As Shane discovered, sometimes your greatest role in this life is to accept the responsibility thrust upon you, even when you are not paid or required to do so.

Even if you might die by doing so.

Perhaps more desirable is when you use your experiences and skillsets to create a role that impacts millions.

There was a gentleman in the music industry that did that like few else.

fciwomenswrestling.com femcompetitor.com, ABC Television photo credit

American Bandstand is an American music-performance and dance television program that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989, and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as the program’s producer.

The cultural and iconic show featured teenagers dancing to Top 40 music introduced by Mr. Clark.

The show’s popularity helped Dick Clark become an American media mogul and inspired similar long-running music programs, such as Soul Train orchestrated by the masterful Don Cornelius.

The lure, and spiritual magic of American Bandstand was that for those of us who were around during that time period, he introduced us to so many unbelievable bands that we heard on the turntable, inside the car and on transistor radios. There were no CDs.

Then we finally saw them on Bandstand.

The British Invasion was so unique and penetrating and Mr. Clark displayed and interacted with them in a way that only he could.

Some of us remember the most important moments of our childhood and teenage years based upon the unique memories of American Bandstand.

We are so happy the Dick Clark found his calling and when it was time for him to take center stage, it was a though we were standing and dancing alongside of him.

“My role in society, or any artist’s or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.”… John Lennon

Which brings us back to you.

Based upon your unique skills and abilities at times a society will call upon you to fulfill your role.

Other times life will thrust a situation in front of you that only you can solve. Will you accept your role as Shane and our real life friend did?

Ultimately, like Dick Clark, we all have a unique gift to bring to the world.

Sometimes it is to inspire the masses to smile or dance. Very important, spiritual and powerful.

The world is indeed a stage as Shakespeare said. When it is time for you to enter the stage and perform you life’s most important role…