‘In infinite play one chooses to be mortal inasmuch as one always plays dramatically, that is, toward the open, toward the horizon, toward surprise, where nothing can be scripted.’*

There is no Human script.  Life is not theatre; it is drama.

Drama is opening, developing, engaging.  As opposed to theatrical, which is defined, scripted, observed.

Yuval Noah Harari describes our ancient ancestors in an somewhat idyllic way:

‘Foragers mastered not only the surrounding world of animals, plants, and objects, but also the internal world or their own bodies and senses.  They listened to the slightest movement in the grass … . They carefully observed the foliage of trees … . They moved with a minimum of effort and noise, and knew how to sit, walk and run in the most agile and efficient manner. … They had a physical dexterity that people today are unable to achieve … .’**

Why would we want to step outside this script?  Yet we did.  We knew there was more.  We still do.  Knowing there is more is different to saying this isn’t enough.

So, for Humans, life is drama, not theatre, and we have moved on.  The drama is asking us about whether the future lies in greater Human connectedness – something we’ve hardly begun to explore.

‘Our futures enter into each other.  What is your future, and mine, becomes ours.  We prepare each other for surprise.’*

Because life is drama, and drama is surprising, it’s hard to judge what’s right, or what should be happening, if it’s what we want or not.^  To move into surprise, we must suspend judgement – how we see and understand things – in order to enter into more.

Surprise is not easy but it’s still possible.

(*From James Carse’s Finite and Infinite Games.)
(**From Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens.)
(^I am not thinking about things we agree are harmful; valuing, above all, lifestyles which seek to express qualities such as love, gentleness, and kindness.)