My spring has been strange, and tonight was a very strange night indeed. I participated in an event that left me trying to think where in dramatic literature, or any literature for that matter, there was a corollary experience. A man pretends that everything is fine and good, and promises a bright future to somebody so that they too can feel that everything is fine and good. But it's not fine and good, and the person he's telling is actually the person who is punishing him, and is the one who made it not fine and good. But they don't see it that way, and the man is bound by honor and duty to smile and reassure and make everything okay, even though he's losing everything.
The only thing I could think of was the end of Season Two of Buffy, where Angel has temporarily lost his soul and is opening a portal that will suck all of this reality into the demon dimension and thus end the world, and he gets his soul restored at the last minute, but it's too late, and Buffy has to destroy him to save the planet. It's not really an exact corollary, but it's a great scene, so here it is:
This character strikes me as somebody for whom honor and dignity are important. We all sacrifice a part of ourselves to maintain an outward perception of who we are. The older I get the more important it is to me that I be the bigger person in an argument or a fall-out. In my head I have a fierce argument where I go for the jugular and slaughter a room full of people with my sharp tongue but then when the situation actually comes to ahead I find more satisfaction letting the others unravel themselves while I remain whole.
This character is a survivor and I imagine that in the wake of all of this, he will appear valiant. That is my prediction and I can't wait to read his next chapter.
This character strikes me as somebody for whom honor and dignity are important. We all sacrifice a part of ourselves to maintain an outward perception of who we are. The older I get the more important it is to me that I be the bigger person in an argument or a fall-out. In my head I have a fierce argument where I go for the jugular and slaughter a room full of people with my sharp tongue but then when the situation actually comes to ahead I find more satisfaction letting the others unravel themselves while I remain whole.
ReplyDeleteThis character is a survivor and I imagine that in the wake of all of this, he will appear valiant. That is my prediction and I can't wait to read his next chapter.