The truth in our everyday performance

September 2013

Every art contributes to the greatest art of all, the art of living.  (Bertolt Brecht) 

In the performance of our everyday lives, do we lose touch with the truth of who we are?  My internal dialogue holds true to what I am thinking in the moments I instruct, cajole or reassure myself, but the details of this I do not always disclose with others.  I may feel inadequate, ill or hesitant but I exude confidence and certainty in the articulation of my thoughts through dialogue with another.  I even hold to a courteous truth in the telling of my stories, though my internal voice may call me a fraud.

Is this performance for the sake of propriety?  In considering how we relate to others, we take on characters, sometimes to impress, to manipulate: to achieve certain objectives.  We strut the world’s stage, creating a fiction of our lives as the central player in a drama being played out with the minor characters of the world our supporting cast.  We construct narratives with verisimilitude, and suspend disbelief as we convince ourselves that what was once improbable is now true.

Will the performative utterance of a constructed life invite engagement with others?  Perhaps we will be adored for our performances; probably more so than for our dogged pursuit of truth.  That’s a lot harder.  Foucault might suggest this is because authentic truth-telling requires taking personal risks.  To identify what is false takes humility. To see an injustice and to risk calling for a reckoning requires a courageous illumination of truth buried in the place of the unfair, the unjust and the false.

Does an absolute Truth exist beyond the performance of our everyday lives?  Let us say that it does, but we have become so caught in our construct of an overly examined life that we can’t see it.  That doesn’t mean it isn’t there.  It just requires us to step into the wings, strip off our make-up and costumes and give up centre stage: for a moment, or a lifetime.  It takes genuine courage to believe in a truth beyond what we can control.  The irony is to find this kind of truth, we must let go of our own kind of truths and be open to belief.

Photography by Michael Fountoulakis