Acting out

“I get it,” she informed me. “I understand it now Mom,” she says nonchalantly while rifling through the pantry for afterschool snacks, past the crackers, straight to the chocolate covered cashews.  She seemed further away today, or maybe got taller.

“Oh yeah?” I think I challenged back, likely defiantly.

“You just have to be crazy,” decidedly closing the cabinet.

“Hmm…” I cast a lure for another line.

“In theatre…if I stop trying to be normal and not stress about being all in control, it’s better that way-the performance.”

“I think you’re right. Actors-the good ones anyway-lose themselves, you forget they are acting.”

“Mom,” correcting my conclusion she explained, “I can’t lose myself when I haven’t even found myself.”

Little did she know, what you don’t know can’t hurt you.

Cutting the rug of sanity, dance like nobody is watching, unraveling is revealing.  



Image by Everett Shinn [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons, Girl on Stage, 1906.