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   %DRAMA PLAY SALVATION RESCUE GOOD LOVE EVIL FATE 890420

     Many people are actors in the drama of salvation. How
they  play  their parts depends upon their conceptions  of
salvation, good, evil, and love.

     Often  people  act as if salvation were a  matter  of
rescue  from the forces of evil and fate.  Some  play  the
roles  of  victims of the forces of evil and  fate.   They
provide  the  opportunity for others to play the  role  of
good   rescuer.   In  their  play  they  dramatize   their
conceptions  of the nature of the universe and the  nature
of salvation in the universe of their conception.  They do
not  realize  the  extent to which they are  creating  the
universe of their dramatic play.

     The  kind of universe which people create and live in
depends critically upon their conceptions of the nature of
good, evil, love, fate, and the possibilities of salvation
through  rescue.   The universe to which they  give  birth
through  their play depends upon what they believe  to  be
the  possibilities  of  the  universe of  which  they  are
participant actors. Through their beliefs they act out the
possibilities which they believe can be realized.  They do
not  know  the  extent to which  those  possibilities  are
born/die in their perceptions.

     People   who  believe  that  all  possibilities   are
determined by objective realities contribute deterministic
elements to the plot of the play.  People who believe that
salvation    resides   in   rescue   contribute   to   the
addictive/codependent  dynamics  of the play.  People  who
believe  the uni-verse to be fundamentally  split  between
the  forces of good and evil contribute to the conflicting
acts  of the good and evil actors of the play.  Each actor
contributes  to  the conception of the play  according  to
their  beliefs  about the nature of the  stage  and  drama
which they are creating.

     Many  people cannot dream that it might  be  possible
for the actors to decide what kind of play to write.  They
can  not imagine in their wildest fantasy that they  might
be  playwrights who set out the drama in their imagination
before they act it out on their stage of life. Many people
believe  that the play which they are acting out has  been
written  by  fate and the forces of good and  evil  before
they  were  cast to be actors in the drama.  They  do  not
believe  that  they are playwrights themselves,  with  the
power  of decision and with the opportunity to  enjoy  the
consequences   of  their  decisions,   or  to  suffer  the
consequences of their decisions.

     People  often do not regard their habits of mind  and
heart  to be the consequences of their decisions and  vice
versa.   People do not recognize the ways in  which  their
attitudes lead to their communal circumstances. Often they
do  not recognize that by changing their ways  they  might
change their communal circumstances, because such behavior
requires a different conception of the possible  character
of the play which they are cooperating in acting out.

     Often  people  think that the only possible  kind  of
cooperation  is  cooperation  in acting  out  a  drama  of
conflict  according  to  mutually  agreed  upon  rules  of
conflict.  They do not recognize that it would be far more
fulfilling  to conceive cooperative ventures in which  all
people come out ahead,  rather than cooperative  conflicts
in which only some people appear to come out ahead.

     Protracted conflicts are possible only because people
on each side of the conflicts cooperate with each other as
to  the  nature of the conflict and as to how it is to  be
acted  out.  If people on one side of the conflict decided
not  to  cooperate in acting out the  assumptions  of  the
conflict, it would not be possible for people on the other
side to continue the conflict in its traditional  dramatic
way.   The nature of their relationships would change  for
lack of conflicting cooperation.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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