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stella41b -> RE: Life is drama and drama is life? (8/5/2008 5:45:02 PM)
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Hmm let's see.. How about things that go to make up a life, okay?
So how about administration? No, that's a bad word, so let's substitute it for 'management', right that's better, 'life management' - getting the income, paying the bills, living someplace, having the right structure and organization in your life, to be able to deal with other people, and also... deal with yourself. Then you have awareness, where you are going in life, what you're doing, who you're dealing with, when, why and so on. Then you have communication, because there are other people in your life, family, friends, co-workers, and so on. Then you need confidence, that feeling of security, knowledge that everything is okay, that everything is in place and as it should be. If something's not right, then you can change it until it is right.
Then there's creativity, moving forward, moving on, finding solutions to problems and difficult situations. This would appear necessary if you're seeking any sort of progress, development, or hoping to achieve something. The next thing I feel that goes to make up a life is discipline - that commitment to yourself, to others in your life, to the way you're living, your ideas, feelings, relationships, goals, dreams.. Finally you also need to be living, out there, in life, on the streets, among people.
Seven things which go to make up a life, management, awareness, communication, confidence, creativity, discipline and living. Now you can debate this among yourselves no doubt, but aren't these the same principles you would need when you approach BDSM, D/s and a relationship with such a dynamic? Or even as it were, a normal, bog standard, vanilla relationship.
But these are also the seven core principles of the Stanislavski Method of acting. And you know, when some people talk about drama as if it's a bad thing I sometimes have to scratch my head and wonder. Now let's assume I'm a Martian, I'm small, green, have just arrived onto Planet Earth in a silver spaceship looking for signs of intelligent life. Intelligent life? Hmm, humans. I follow them into a theatre and I watch them all sit down neatly into rows. They are all looking at an empty space (actually the stage). So what? So humans come together to sit and stare into open spaces? But no wait, the lights go out. That empty space lights up and other human beings come out and enact a scene by pretending to be other human beings in another situation. All the other humans are sat there in their rows watching these humans pretending to be other humans. Is this why they've come? Yes it is.
Meanwhile in movie theaters you got other humans sat in rows, munching popcorn watching a recording of other humans on a screen pretending to be other humans. Meanwhile in millions of homes all over the world other humans are staring at a plastic box on which there's another screen on which there are more humans, pretending to be other humans. Drama is life, and life is drama, with episodes of drama, horror, suspense, thriller, tragedy, and comedy thrown in. Nothing good is going to happen in your life without drama. Nothing.
So what about those previously who claim to be drama-free? Does this mean they live in a broom cupboard? No it doesn't. They're not really talking about drama, but about melodrama - sensational drama, the stuff that grips the emotions and causes stress. The point focus or mid-point in the three stage Hollywood script format - the crisis, 'there's no way out', 'we're doomed', 'I'm doomed'. This is the drama of daytime TV, cheap lurid South American soap operas, played out in real life by people who are only successful at playing caricatures of themselves. You know, when you've got a representative group of middle America trapped in a small town Walmart and the only exits are covered by nasty horrible beings or things which are 'out to get them'.
These are not just drama queens, for drama queens are easy to deal with, just avoid them. But then you get the prima donnas, both male and female, very much in the tradition of 19th century Russian theatre, the very people who inspired the Russian actor Constantin Stanislavski to write down his method. I don't mind dealing with drama, other people's drama but I know very few drama queens. I admit that I take the piss at times, but I've watched too much Leslie Neilsen and Lloyd Bridges to always pass up the temptation.
My approach to life is the same as theatre, deal with the issues and problems in hand, looking for solutions. Being responsible is essential, not finding fault or seeking to apportion the blame. Good drama is like music, it requires a rhythm, progression, a resolution to the conflict. having a strategy helps, but if you haven't got a strategy, or your strategy falls apart then do what all the good actors do and improvise.
"If all else fails read the script.." This keeps you on the ball when it comes to the plot. But then you get people who've lost the plot, the conflict stagnates and the drama turns to comedy, or... horror. So what if the script fails?
Change it. It's that simple. It's your life, you're the director. And you only got one production.
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