In The Mirror

Reputation is what you are in the light.
Character is what you are in the dark.

Unknown
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Hello Ernie
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Years ago I followed a certain spiritual path that required me to sit in front of a mirror for a long time looking at myself. It was an exercise in self awareness. But the basic benefit was to engage in a dialogue with my conscience. I would go through the recent events of my life, noting my behavior in each case and measuring myself against them all to determine what I did that was true to myself and what wasn't. It's almost impossible to lie to yourself while looking yourself in the eye.

It was a very helpful exercise for a while. With each label I found to describe my actions I could determine what to affirm and what to discard. And with what was left I could illustrate to myself what I was at that given time. It helped me to be watchful and careful about doing or saying anything that did not fit with the character I had fashioned myself to be. It also astonished me to find out that I really did have a consience and that sometimes I ignored it.

I finally stopped looking in the mirror except to shave. Instead I began looking out from the mirror and back at myself as a person among others. In effect the world became my mirror. I grew more aware of how people responded to me and tried to be in person the character I had discovered "in the dark." Did I slip up? More times than I have the courage to admit.

I had a fairly good reputation as a broadcaster and actor. There's an old saying in radio "You're only as good as your last station break." A good reputation can take time to build up and you can lose it in a moment. It is really something owned by others and only loaned to you by them. But character, good or bad, is impossible to lose. It can only be changed or improved, because you own it. It's yours to find in the dark, in front of a mirror or in your own thoughts as you pick and choose between what to keep about yourself and what to throw off. And when you step out into the light that character is yours no matter what your reputation is.

Dana Bate - The Vagabond
Never Give Up.
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Through The Window

I don't take the movies seriously, and anyone who does is in for a headache.

Bette Davis
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It may be an old drum but it still resonates. So I'm going to keep beating it.

Let me put it to you this way. If you went to a concert and saw a man playing the guitar would you say that the man was the guitar? Of course not. He's not a guitar. He's playing a guitar. If you went to the ballet and the next day you saw the ballerina coming down the sidewalk, do you think she would be walking on her toes, doing leaps and pirouettes? Most probably not. If an artist paints a picture is he the picture or simply the one who painted it? If a novelist writes a story about someone is he writing an autobiography or a novel? Then why do people assume an actor is like the roles he plays?

I am currently putting the final touches on a long story about Brian Sims and his journey across the country. (http://db-vagabondtales.blogspot.com/) "Brian On The Road." I made such a journey myself in the same year, 1960. The story is based on my own journey but Brian is a different man, he's my invention. Some of the people, places and events are true, but not in the way I describe them, and some are not. It is simply based on my own journey. And that phrase "based on" is a very important one to remember.

I have a friend, an actor, who played one of the most villainous and despicable characters in a Hollywood film. There is nothing about my friend that resembles that character in the least. The role was a pure invention based on something: people he knew or read about perhaps. I remember discussing that with a young actress who claimed that there must be something to my friend that is like that character or he could never have played it so well. I asked her if she happened to get a role as a prostitute would she like it if someone said there must be something loose and promiscuous about her or she could never play it so well. She admitted that would not please her and changed her mind about my friend.

There's a recent motion picture, a war story, set in Iraq. Members of the military have complained about it, saying that it isn't true to life and doesn't happen that way. Well, of course it doesn't. The film is a work of art, a piece of fiction. It may be based on things that happen in Iraq, but it isn't about them. It's about itself.

If they want something that is true to life in Iraq then they should make a documentary. But that's a different product for a different audience. The film is fiction, just like a novel, just like a ballet. If you watch a film thinking the actors are really the people they are portraying then you're going to end up with a headache.

A work of art is an invitation, it's a window on to our own special lives.

DB - The Vagabond
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WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

Hold your breath, Spring is coming any minute

Given the resources and opportunity, what one thing do you want to do in 2010 that you've never done before.

You have the Winter to answer. Answers will be posted on the first day of Spring.
24 responses so far.

DB - The Vagabond
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Any suggestions for a Spring Question?