ENOUGH IS ENOUGH and TOO MUCH IS TOO MUCH
Our Enemy is the Enemy of Our Heart
I ran across some notes this morning of things which I’ve shared with my students over the years. One was, “to be a creator, not a consumer.” But must we consume to create?
If we’re world class human beings we must be aware of what we’re creating and contributing because of what we’re consuming.
An example which comes to mind is one of the most haunting and terrifying roles I ever performed. It was the role of the Marquis de Sade in the play, Marat-Sade.
“…what we do, is but a shadow of what we want to do.”
My thing as an actor is to do extensive research on a role. When I think of the information I consumed on the Marquis DeSade, at what point do we decide we’re on the verge of going overboard and learning too much? When I recall researching and performing that role, I remember Heath ledger as the Joker. I don’t know that we can really comprehend what took his life, but it is said he consumed so much of that role that it eventually consumed him. One must ask what the value of reality versus imagination serves a backstory, and keeps us sane at the same time.
I did Marat-Sade in the fall of 1988. What I remember from that play is the terrifying nightmares I had and the following line I spoke as Sade:
“Before deciding what is right and what is wrong, first we must find out what we are. I do not know myself.
… what we do, is but a shadow of what we want to do.
I don’t know if I am hangman or victim. For I imagine the most horrible tortures, and as I describe them, I suffer them myself.”
”Do we truly understand the value of human life, pain, and joy?”
Knowing what I still know about Sade is more memorable than the play. For he did imagine the most horrible tortures, which led him to perform them on himself. Unfortunately my research on him opened a portal which awakened the most terrible tragedies in my psyche.
What occurs to me is if we imagine the most horrible tortures of others and suffer them ourselves, how far ahead does that put us on the scale of humanity? Do we truly understand the value of human life, pain, and joy?
“Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”
How far will our imagination go? Is it our friend or enemy? Where is the line between consumption and creation, and does it truly exist? How do we serve our audience? How do we serve those who walk the planet with us? We don’t know the extent of their most horrible torture, nor do we know the inevitable outcome of our work. When we create, do we understand it’s for a higher purpose? My dad’s favorite quote has kept me above water and above ground since I was a young boy: “Enough is enough and too much is too much.” Do we honestly know when we’ve had enough?
I knew when my dad said, “And I’ve had enough!”
Consume with caution. Please. An ancient proverb suggests “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” We've all heard the quote, “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.” Attributed to Sun Tau, an ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher from the Zhou dynasty, we might consider not only the good of what we learn, but the evil. We must be careful to keep knowledge at bay which doesn't lift others up. Our enemy is the enemy of our heart, which seeks to destroy the goodness of life.