witness

The older I get, there is more of an appreciation for the craft of film and television.  I felt growing up, I was taught that media was for pure entertainment.  It was trivial to want to simply please an audience, one should strive for healing the masses and changing them.  Well deserved respect accompanies having the title of "doctor."  Yet along with that there's this expectation to cure others within a short amount of time.  No matter the level of abuse they've experienced at a young age that was replicated throughout their lives, self inflicted wounds as punishment, the aftermath of killing another human being in a war they no longer know what it is about, or the pure lack of desire to want to live another day...we as medical or mental health professionals are looked at to "fix them" on some level.  And I applaud anyone who does this day in and out.

Within the domain of acting or writing, there are still the same complex characters a psychologist may deal with, but the pressure is lifted.  One can simply appreciate how the craft highlights these imperfections.  We simply are witnesses to an individual's life, instead of striving to be agents of change.  There's a search for a deeper understanding of what led them to be here.  There may be a dangling question of what they may do next versus leading to correct their faulty beliefs.  I can imagine how freeing it is to throw oneself into the mind of such a complicated human being, versus scheming ways to fix them.  Although as therapists we know it is the individual that is responsible to change into a self actualized human being, we guide them through targeted questions, reflections, or homework.  As an actor or writer, one simply takes their downfalls, shines light on them, cascading their imperfections.   We are a witness to a moment in time in this person's life, and there is pure beauty in simply watching with a grasping breath on what is to unfold on their time limited path we see.