What If You Forget Your Lines?

My wife shared a dream with me this morning that she's had on and off over the last several years. Without compromising the specific connections between her life circumstances and the dream, I want to tell you about it because you might be able to make personal application by considering some of the dreams' implications. If on the other hand, you don't see any application at all; you've obviously misplaced your thinking cap, need to find it, and you need to put it back on.

The dream is about how my wife is a character in a play. When it comes time for her to speak her lines she can't remember them. The director scolds her about it. She's embarrassed and feels terrible that she doesn't know her lines. She knows she's been practicing her lines and feels like she should be ready to say them but just can't remember. It is a very frustrating dream. It's the kind of dream, that even while dreaming it, you are thinking how much you want to wake up so you can escape from it. Well, maybe there's an upside.

Sometimes feeling that you've forgotten your lines may be a subconscious realization that the lines you've been repeating over and over just don't make sense to you anymore. Maybe you have come to a place in your life where you are understanding that you've become dependent on memorized lines as a measure of competence or completeness. I think it's possible to become so dependent on a script that you get to the point where the script replaces your life. Or at least parts of it.

Some years ago I was a living history interpreter for the Florida Park Service at Fort Foster; it is an authentic replica of a Seminole War era military post. The fort sits on the location where the original installation was constructed during the Second Seminole Indian War in the 1830s. From Thursday through Sunday it was my job to live the life of Private Wiley Sanders; Second Artillery Co. A, United States Army and convey that life in 'First Person Interpretation' to visitors and tour groups. Four days a week I was living my life according to a script. I put my own personality into it but it was still a script. We wanted the visitor to understand specific aspects of life as witnessed by a soldier in 1830s Florida. So the story had to be interpreted without leaving the lines and characters we had spent so much time creating and refining. I remember telling new interpreters who were being introduced into the program: "You can't re-write Shakespeare." It was a play. Some of the tour audience returned again and again memorizing the spiel and requesting their favorite stories.

It was quite difficult some Monday mornings to return from 1837 and re-enter my real world responsibilities. I found it hard to talk without sounding like Wiley. Sometimes I had to force myself to turn the spiel off.

Imagine if I had just stayed at the fort and lived 1837 over and over. And then one day, I forgot my lines. Panic! I don't know what to do because Wiley Sanders can't remember his lines. You see, it's not me anymore. I've become Private Wiley Sanders, Company A, Second Artillery, United States Army.

Maybe you've had the dream about forgetting your lines. Maybe it's time to realize that you've been wanting to write your own lines for a long time but didn't have the confidence. Well, you've got experience, you've worked with some difficult directors and now is the time to put all those years of practice to work. If you don't you will be forever asking: "Who gets to pick?", and it won't be you.

What if you forget your lines? Well, be thankful for the great reminder and opportunity to realize the lines you forgot were only written for a character in a play; your life is not a play to be lived by reciting someone else's script. Your life is about taking responsibility in living it according to your lines of understanding. With all the practice you've had quoting, you're now ready to start writing. If somehow, you can see that you've been blessed by God with your life, with wisdom, knowledge, conscience, boundaries and the freedom to live out all that because of His grace, you'll be amazed at where that realization can take you.

So. What if you forget your lines? You may be surprised to find that the audience enjoys your character a whole lot more now that it is you speaking and not the script.

Have you got a dream and can't figure it out? Send a narrative of you your dream to me, Pete and I'll interpret it for you. Please include your mailing address. You'll be billed $14.95. Discounts may apply to individuals with multiple dreams, although multiple personalities will be charged individually. :-)