The Actual Reality Game

9/15/2007 8:12

The game's afoot.

This is intended to report the Actual Reality Game, an intent consistent with the study of Comenius' Labyrinth and, we hope, the confirmation study which follows on Wednesdays. Certainly Comenius was making the point that we can and should try to see the "game" with clear eyes and a discerning mind (although he proposes that only 2/3 of the way to wisdom).

What does one say about the Brown County Historical [Fiction] Society's THursday program at Woodlawn Cemetary, "If Gravestones Could Talk ..."? The presenters attempted to portray actual people who truly once lived, but of course the actors are not in reality those people at all. While it is true that the presentations were founded on actual facts, to the extent that the facts are known about the people portrayed, a great deal of imagined reality was constructed on top of these facts.

In some cases an imagined personality was embellished on top of the bare outline of a life story, or the relationship between a dead husband and his dead wife was invented to enliven the tale.

The real outline of Otto Kaap's life was presented, but much of what real, living people remember about Kaap was not mentioned, such as his tight-fisted business management or the starkly contrasting generosity in giving a carillon to First Lutheran, his church, or his constant concern for immigrants to America.

This, then, is the game: seeing the truth, finding truth among the fictions, discerning an actual truth within the presentations of an imagination. So this is a year of discernment.

None of which explains watching the movie Ocean's Twelve last night.