The Cat On A Hot Tin Roof… And Random Thoughts On Drama

We went to see The Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, written by Tennessee Williams, at Players By The Sea. It’s an excellent play! I wasn’t quite sure how to tie it in with a blog post until I thought to write about drama… oh boy, was this play loaded with it! It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955. This is a wild tale of one evening in the life of the Pollitt family. They’re fully engaged in the “recurring motifs, such as social mores, greed, superficiality, mendacity, decay, sexual desire, repression, and death,” as stated by Wikipedia. The seemingly complex rules of social conduct in the culture of the deep south are lived out.

Oh.My.Goodness!

The character names breathe drama…

Brick, Margaret (aka Maggie, or “the Cat”), Big Daddy, Big Mama, Sister Woman, Brother Man, Doctor Baugh, and Reverend Tooker (isn’t there a beer called Tooker?). The play was funny… entertaining… and I left wondering… how could some family, or this collection of people, have so much drama in their lives? (the plot is rather thick… if you’re not familiar with it but would like to read about the play please follow this link to Wikipedia)

Then I returned to everyday life and it happened… drama… not just everyday, ho hum stuff… BIG off-the-charts drama… whoa nillie!!

So I started to thinkin’ about it and came to the realization that some of us actually attract drama, for one reason or another…

Who fits the profile?

- For some, it’s their personality. The dramatic types are bored silly without a good daily dose of this stuff. They are usually the life of the party… they can’t just sit on the sidelines and watch the game… they ARE the game. They thrive in their setting… center stage… then, they boast about it. Yikes!! Steer clear of these creatures… unless you like drama yourself…

- Celebrities seem to attract a lot of drama. I guess it comes with the turf. They are in the public eye and part of their profession includes increasing their popularity… sometimes drama tags along with that effort. Likewise, their drama gets sensationalized… blown out of proportion in comparison to our drama. Whatever dramatic event we have is 10X worse for them… EVERYBODY knows their drama!! Moreover, their drama doesn’t go away… it only becomes exaggerated… embellished… padded… puffed up… stretched… the tabloids make millions on celebrity drama.

- High schoolers tend to have lots of drama (and those older folks who never seemed to emotionally mature, grow up and get over it). From the Urban Dictionary… “Started 200 Wednesday’s ago when Jessica told Amber that Tasha’s shirt is so cute, but Amber hates Tasha so Amber told Vicky that Jessica said that Tasha’s shirt was just so sliggity that she couldn’t stand the sight of it and her. The next day, at the infamous MeanGirl lunch table, Tasha splashes her iced tea on Jessica for calling her a skeezer as told to her by Greg who was told by Kaylee who was told by Tony who was told by Jessica’s Cousin Felicia, who was told by Ashley who was told by Vicky who was told by Amber. That was the day Skankwars begun and a 17-day riot took over the school when all the cute girls carried 9mm’s in their coach purses. Drama never ends, its only a cycle that gets reborn because Amber still won’t forgive Tasha for whatever she did.” Enough said.

- Then there’s the run-of-the-mill drama… everyone seems to have some of this in their life. Except my mom. She thinks she has drama in her life but I don’t agree with her. Her life is pretty straightforward from what I can see. Sans drama.

- And me?? Well, let’s just say that I’ve seen my fair share. Remember Brer Rabbit meets Tar Baby? Sometimes it seems like we just can’t shake loose from some of life’s drama. It’s sticky! Once you find it… it lingers. Remember, sometimes it seems like the harder we work for God the more difficult the evil one makes it for us. That can be dramatic! The funny thing for me is that some of my drama I can work into my writing. Especially since I’m working more on my life story now… discretely though… I value my personal, private life… just ask Mary Ann… ;-)

A few wise words…

“Be happy, young man, while you are young,
and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth.
Follow the ways of your heart
and whatever your eyes see,
but know that for all these things
God will bring you to judgment.
So then, banish anxiety from your heart
and cast off the troubles of your body,
for youth and vigor are meaningless.” Ecclesiastes 11:9-10

The Q: Of the people in the Bible, who do you think lived a life filled with drama?