Two Days of "Out of body" experiences!

Thanks to those of you who threw yourselves into your characters over the last two days in the extended role play.  If you had trouble getting into character, try to figure out why.  Did you really try to internalize the personality of the character you were assigned?  I know that it is difficult to play someone who is quite different from yourself, but that is what actors do all the time.  My favourite actor's break out role was a character he detested.  (I'm talking about Marlon Brando playing Stanley Kowalski in "Streetcar Named Desire".)  Brando said, "I was the antithesis of Stanley Kowalski.  I was sensitive by nature and he was coarse, a man with unerring animal instincts and intuition."  He didn't like him, but it was one of those great confluences of actor and role -- some people think there will never be another Stanley Kowalski that comes close to Brando's.  (You can see the film of his performance with the great Vivian Leigh as Blanche -- it is one of the iconic performances that changed the way we saw the world.)

I do appreciate those of you who were willing to take on the teacher role, which is essential for the thing to work the way it does.  I took over a bit too much in B Block, but I was just trying to "help".  (Hard for the actual teacher to stand by when everyone is running around like chickens with their heads cut off.)  We're back to normal (whatever that is) on Monday.  Don't forget to write your journals -- we're quickly approaching the end of the semester and I am going to have to come up with report cards for all of you and you know the influence the journals have on your mark!

On Friday morning, while I was walking Daisy, I found an injured flicker.  He couldn't fly and looked like he was having trouble even standing up.  He flopped away from us and sometimes flipped over on his back and couldn't right himself.  I couldn't catch him with Daisy there -- he was too scared.  So I took Daisy home and returned with a towel and a box to put him in.  He gave up pretty quickly without Daisy there to threaten him and I wrapped him in the towel and put him in the box (it was a large laundry hamper with a lid so he could still breathe).  I took him to Wildlife Rescue at Burnaby Lake -- they will take in any injured bird or animal and try to help them back to health and then release them where they were found (if you've ever seen the tv show, "Hope for Wildlife", it's a place like that).  They do such good work and if you're looking for a charity to donate to, they are an excellent choice. They took my lovely little friend into the clinic and did their best to help him, but he was too far gone and he died.  I am so sorry that he wasn't able to survive, but Nature is a hard mistress, as we all know, and I am comforting myself with the idea that I did my best to help and that I saved him from suffering in the cold and wet, hungry and unable to protect himself.