A One Act Play In Search Of Hope

 

Every so often I get the grandiose notion that I could write one great play and have the world change as a result of the spoken words I funnel through some acting vessels. I can picture the lights being laser-focused on the soliloquy of one actor, where some insightful, emotionally stirring ideas and firm declarations are spewed across the stage as if they were sunlight and water showering a barren wasteland, nurturing the distraught and dying souls of humanity.

There would be an unmistakable, yet unfamiliar, group feeling of love, hope, and peace swelling in the energized theater. Words, for once, would become real and tangible, taking human form and becoming physical tools to fix the broken world. Our individual pains would transition to become a collective, curative force. Rather than turning on ourselves or each other we would unite to attack the forces that conspire to make this world a confusing, conflicted, and often challenging place.

But alas, I have not even penned a single page of this life-altering, society-shaping manifesto destined for Broadway.

Enter stage left.

It all lives within me, dancing on the periphery, where art and existence are clearly bordered apart. My hopes and visions crowd a neutral zone of the mind, not steeped fully in the imagination nor grounded in reality. They float, without a home, vagabond thoughts denied a destiny or forum.

Sometimes I feel that I have so much to say, but the words pile up into a burdensome mountain. They need to come out of me, to infuse others and become the roads and staircases to a better place. But they, instead, rot my gut like an aging landfill that no longer can take in anymore garbage. No more room for unlived wishes and silenced hopes. Not a centimeter of space can be salvaged to house another unfulfilled thought.

We can be taunted by our pent-up desires, needs, and dreams. But there are safety valves that can be triggered, some of which are mere doomsday pills that launch us into the dark voids located between familiar pain and the unknown.

We can cross a line and live in our insanity, where we forever are out of control and isolated from another understanding soul, where we live at the mercy of our medications and latest treatments touted by therapists who no more have their act together than any of us.

Or we can go to battle with reality. And get frustrated, angry, fearful, and depressed, fighting a losing battle. Our addictions and abusive ways, used to cope with a world that falls far short of being idealistic, eventually force us to crash and burn — and submit to the flawed ways of the universe.

Or we can simply silence ourselves and stop letting our minds wander beyond our means to act. We can just disappear from an unforgiving life. We can simply erase our mistake-filled lives by ceasing to participate in the cruel games of the world.

The play ends.

The applause is deafening, blinding us to the outside world and its history of violence, ignorance, and loneliness. For a moment and place, the theater allows for us to sit protectively in a temple of soul-searching, eye-awakening, heart-pumping proclamations, prayers, and possibilities.

Will tomorrow be different? Will I think different thoughts? Will you react differently to me?

The curtain collapses to the worn wooden floors and the crowds empty out. Did any of the hundreds of thousands of spoken words from the play pierce the air and enter inside anyone’s sense of being? Did anything change?

If language is merely a construct used to explain the unforgivable and unattainable, does it really do us any good? We need a language that does not merely diagnose, but rather cures. Do such words exist?

 

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Brian Feinblum, the founder of BookMarketingBuzzBlog, can be reached at  brianfeinblum@gmail.com.  You can – and should -- follow him on Twitter @theprexpert. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2021. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. Also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America. For more information, please consult: linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum.