You may remember from a recent post that Sarah and I are watching Twin Peaks. And you might also realize (if you are looking at your social media feeds today) that college football season has started again. And you might further remember that last football season, I posted counter-programming WWYG?! posts each Saturday afternoon to break up the endless football talk and give the curious something else to think about each Saturday.
And so, I'm at it once more--casting about for things to say that might be diverting and (slightly) interesting. So, to honor the Twin Peaks watching and hoping that it is an interesting set of topics, I am going to rely on the Log Lady Introductions as an idea generator.
What are the Log Lady Introductions? On Twin Peaks, one of the townspeople was known as the Log Lady. She popped up here and there, always carrying a log of wood. She claimed that it had various types of awareness and that she could talk to it and it could talk to her. She invited Agent Cooper to speak to the log in the pilot episode, but Cooper declined. (The Log Lady insisted that her log had something to say about the murder of Laura Palmer.)
When the show originally aired in Prime Time on ABC back in 1989 and 1990, there were no Log Lady Introductions. But David Lynch did film these short cryptic prefaces, intending them to accompany the show in International and syndicated broadcasts. They are provided on the DVD, so Sarah and I are watching them and trying to puzzle out their meaning. I don't mean to try and connect the Log Lady's words to a meaning of the show on the Football Counter-Programming posts, but rather to see if I can use her words to move me into other realms of thought and creativity. (By the way, these intros are taken from this Web site.)
Let's get started. (And I'll try to write this one as much off the top of my head as I can. No guarantees that it will be like this each week.)
This is an introduction--fairly straightforward. Basic information that sets you up with a person's identify and location. But very quickly Margaret shifts from the specific to the cryptic. She invites you to learn more about her, but she is not willing to volunteer that information. She is holding back the truth about herself, though she hints at some of the things that demonstrate her true identify.
We do this. We introduce ourselves, but only the part of ourselves that we want to define us. We hold back information deep inside that illuminates as much of who we are as anything we actually reveal to strangers and even to friends. We are reluctant to truly share ourselves--our truest, most honest selves. Do we tell the truth with those we love and trust the most? Maybe some of us do, but I bet that most of us do not. There are always secrets within that we are ashamed of or maybe we don't even realize that we are holding something back.
And if we did share our most intimate selves, how would others react? Happily? With caution? With fear or even rejection? But shouldn't we TRY to be more forthcoming with others? Shouldn't we try to be more honest--especially with those who are supposed to know us best?
Sometimes I am not as honest as I should be because I am trying to go along and get along. I don't confront hypocrisy and bad judgment (either in others or--most especially--in myself) because I don't want to cause trouble. But the inescapable fact of being an adult and being responsible for others or being in a leadership position is the requirement and the expectation to sometimes call people on their weakness--either to protect the integrity of the project or the organization OR to simply try and make someone better than who they currently are.
Being that honest is not easy and it is often taken negatively by others. But it is something that maybe I should try to do more often, so that I can be a better person. And I know it is hard, because we live in a very superficial world. We hide behind our screens and keyboards, passing judgment on other in our minds without really calling them out in public. And when we are in social or public situations, we are focused on group cooperation or keeping the peace or just keeping going . . . for whatever our reasons might be.
So . . . I'm gong to try and be more truthful and honest--a bit at a time. Will you try and do it as well?
No comments:
Post a Comment