Sir Laurence Seaweed-ier

I'm amused at the actor/director references in the literature.  Maybe our founders were frustrated thespians.

Try this on for size:

Each person is like an actor who wants to run the whole show; is forever trying to arrange the lights, the ballet, the scenery and the rest of the players in his own way.  If arrangements wold only stay put, if only people would do as he wished, the show would be great.  Everybody, including himself, would be pleased.  Life would be wonderful.  In trying to make these arrangements our actor may sometimes be quite virtuous.  He may be kind, considerate, patient, generous; even modest and self-sacrificing.  On the other hand, he may be mean, egotistical, selfish and dishonest.  But, as with most humans, he is more likely to have varied traits.  

What usually happens?  The show doesn't come off very well.

Let's call this one the Control Freak.  This individual has trouble realizing that it's hard trying to control the world.  It is a very frustrating exercise.  People do not like to be told what to do.  I HATE being told what to do - why do I think that others would be different in this regard?

And a bit later on . . . but not as far down the road as you'd think.

More than most people, the alcoholic leads a double life.  He is very much the actor.  To the outer world he presents his stage character.  This is the one he likes his fellows to see.

And this fine fellow is the Bullshit Artist.  The BA has to work very hard to survive.  It's incredibly difficult constructing all kinds of alternate realities and then trying to remember what you've done and what you've said - allegedly - in these little worlds.

Remember: if you tell the truth then you don't have to remember what you've said.

An update, as I continue my reading . . . 

"It was as if were actors on a stage, suddenly realizing that we did not know a single line of our parts."

One of most recurring dreams - and this from a guy who almost never remembers any dreams whatsoever - finds me in school.  I'm late for class, sometimes weeks late, I don't have the books, I don't even know where the classroom is, and I'm trying to figure out how I can get out of this pickle.