To you,this might sound childish,but I was child when it happened so you would be correct. The first time I remember being unbrideled,not haveivg to conform or deal with everyone else was during my elementary school’s production of “The Wizard of Oz”. I’m sorry I can’t go deep than that, lie to you and say “I discovered I was free when I first went into the Artic at age six,” but I can’t. At the time I was in fourth grade (The first year you could join the play,might I add) and was cast in the role as “The Wizard.”
1) The number of girls largely outweighed the number of boys at St. Vitus. Fun Fact? I later learned that many parents chose to send their daughters under the impression that nuns emit birth control powers on adolescents.
2) Being small for my age,my high voice and air or ridiculous pep and enthusiasm made the final pulling back of the curtain hi-larious in the eyes of the director, a nearly crippled elderly church goer, named Marge.
Marge was quite senile,so creative production was basically turned over to us,a collection of 4th through 8th graders armed with paintbrushes in our hands and the hope that this would be the BEST. PLAY. EVER. I took full control of my roll, and was living the dream. When I stood behind that curtain holding up a giant carboard Oz head by two feeble sticks, I was free to do it how ever I pleased. If I wanted the Wizard to be a vampire, he was going to be a vampire. (Sadly,Marge was on her medication this day,and this was struck from the play.) On the day of the performance in an auditorium filled with parents,unwilling teenage cousins and drunk single uncles, I ran about the world of Oz in my own frenzied cloud being myself while pretending to be someone else.
You can say from this that maybe I was confortable because of this fact,that the only reason I was free was because I was free to be another person,and it might be true. All I know though is that in fourth grade I could talk to the way I wanted to talk,dance the way I wanted to dance. This is the starting point. Now it’s time for a full circle.
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Nuns emit birth control powers on adolescents?
ReplyDeleteSo, hypothetically, Christian women emit a propensity for breeding like rabbits?
"parents, unwilling teenage cousings and drunk single uncles."
Good final detail there. I understand that sort of scene.
Why do you think that masks or costumes give us this kind of freedom? What is it about the cloak that lets us reveal ourselves?
ReplyDeleteI'm also kind of interested in seeing your thoughts on whether writing in a semi-nameless public blog (hiding behind an anonymous mask) grants you this same kind of permission. What do you think?