Unless
you've been backstage for a performance
you will never know
what goes into the staging
of
a person's story.
As the curtain of 2020 has risen
we have seen
resilience, collaboration, innovation
as well as
defeat, division and personal loss.
You can be in line at the gas pump
or in the parking lot of a home improvement store
and a complete stranger will have no problem
insulting you
lashing out - even threatening you
or
breaking down in front of you.
You never know what has gone on
B A C K S T A G E
for
a performance as such.
That is why I've changed course.
From the political scene to the pandemic
I observe from my theatre seat
and I wonder and I weep
but all it took was for
one man
in his mid-70s
standing in front of me in line
buying bottled water
to rant
about the closure of his business
to question my use of a mask and goggles
and then to
I read his script.
And the uncanny thing about it is
it
was my script.
The muffled words sucking in and puffing out
from behind his mask,
"I'm so sorry but it's been so hard. I'm losing everything. I deeply apologize"
were like a tinnitus in my ears
that resonated his pain with mine.
His admission ticket of humility
wasn't for a seat for the final act
but
for entrance into the darkness
of
the corridors
of
our humanity.
