September 10, 2007
-
The Daily News
The immortal Charles Chaplin in Modern Times (1936)
1 Do you ever sometimes just laugh when the world decides to turn your life into a silent comedy?2 The first play I ever directed at YB was a quaint little piece called Silents. It was a tribute to the days when we had movies without talking. I was always charmed at the amazing ways the actors had to depend on instincts and visuals to get large points across to people. I’m always charmed by simpler times.
3 I also gained tremendous respect for Charlie Chaplin, and how with a shrug of the shoulders and a turn on a cane, he would simply sidestep all the goofy things that could happen to people, dust himself off, and walk crookedly into a black-and-white sunset to greet his next adventure.
4 I always loved when he would be at war with an inanimate object, whether it would be a mop, or a pair of roller skates, or a machine that would pull him right through its gears when he tried repairing it.
5 The entire concept of inanimate objects grabbing us randomly out of our lives and wishing to wrestle with our day is a fun concept, because it happens all the time.
6 Yesterday was a perfect example. I wanted like crazy to get a jump on the day, got up early and got through the morning pretty quicky, despite the toilet paper roll coming completely unwound on one pull.
7 I watched. It kept going. I have this relatively new holder that is free standing, but also well spun. I tried rolling it all back on neatly, but it looked like a guy who tried to tuck a huge shirt into his normal pants.
8 I picked it up and was ready to throw it away when I thought, “THAT’S not very resourceful.”
9 But then what do you DO with a bulky toilet paper roll? Well, you do with it what you do with anything that you’re suddenly holding and don’t know what to do with. You pick it up. Set it down. Think. Pick it back up. Start to put it one place, and then think twice. You stuff it in your front pocket. You think about it and then put it in your back pocket. You take it back out and ponder…
10 I wound up throwing it out. I went into this tremendous guilt about global warming, starving people, felled redwoods, and all the rest. I rescued it from the trash and set it on a counter that had lots of other junk on it so that it joined the ranks of “stuff I don’t know what to do with”. It sits now a trophy, and a tissue shrine to the art of indecision.
11 But STILL I was in a hurry, who isn’t? So I dashed into the closet and grabbed this large shirt, knowing it might be hot outside, turned and tried to speed out of the room to do whatever it was that was so important.
12 I took one step and got clotheslined. The shirt had caught on one of those little blouse hooks on some random hanger, and literally pulled me backwards, like a lineman grabbing a running back’s collar from behind.
13 Now I’m not a little guy, but there I was headed forward out of the room and this shirt stretched to the hanger, forming a huge “V” behind me, and I couldn’t move until I unhitched myself, which meant finding the hanger and THEN unfastening myself.
14 I turned and swung at the hanger, which snapped into the air and made tremendous noise, but finally fell to the ground, releasing me from my ridiculous shackle. I was finally on my way.
15 Midway through the hall I just thought of how funny it is that things that small and seemingly insignificant can come at you on a daily basis.
16 I chuckled as I considered how Chaplin never considered such nonsense as “little things that just do that to us in life”, but as life’s humbling of our own busy-ness and self- importance. To Chaplin, that WAS what happens to all of us, all the time.17 Computers that suddenly go wonky. The gate that will never close on one try. The doorknob that turns round and round but never catches. The shopping cart with the revolvingly noisy and clacky wheel. The spices that fall on our heads every time we open a cupboard. The shoelace that comes undone.
18 We will make our meek adjustments.
19 The story unfolds. Each day is a new adventure. Things will come at us incessantly, and we will learn to pirhouette and let them slip by.20 In the long run, our story will be made up of lots of encounters with things that try to control us. Sometimes they’ll emerge victorious. Other times we will adjust meekly, and stroll back down the road.
21 With any luck, we’ll walk into a glorious sunset.
22 Enjoy your own story, and don’t forget to laugh today.
23 Peace.
~H~
