Play the scene you’re in.
Shift the plot. Tell me
Where we can go together.
— from “In The Moment” by Lynn Ungar
In Lynn Ungar’s poem, “In the Moment,” there is a gentle, almost chiding, call for us to step back from railing that “everything has gone off script” (which is both futile and exhausting), and instead “play the scene you’re in.” And isn’t that really all we can do?
Rather than leaving us feeling defeated or asking us to be more Zen-like and unattached than we may have the capacity or temperament for, she reminds us that we can do something about the scene we’re in. We can use the creative “yes/and” of improv to “shift the plot.”
I like that Ungar suggests we shift the plot, not rewrite it. Signaling that we don’t have to make huge changes, instead we can take the situation we’re in and try to see things differently.
Last night, I went to a community meeting on an issue I have strong feelings about. I worked on this reflection before going. Under its influence, I resolved to try and be more open to what others might say. I heard things in the presentation that I didn’t agree with and asked questions challenging some of the points. But I, and all the others in the room, spoke respectfully. While I still disagreed with some of the people, I began to understand why they felt the way they did.
I didn’t get the outcome from the meeting that I was hoping for and left feeling disappointed. But less intensely so than in the past. That’s a shift I can live with.
Megan Scribner
I grew up in the Northwest, my father was an optimist, my mother found peace in the trees. I have lived longer in the East than the West, yet still consider myself a Westerner. The roots go deep. The West, my optimism, and my love of nature are part of what makes me who I am.
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I read The PIague when I was a junior at Notre Dame, in 1978. I’d been given an assignment to write a paper about the book but had confused deadlines, and I realized at about 6 p.m. one evening that the paper was due at 9 a.m. the next morning – and I hadn’t read a page, had no idea what it was about.
Monks and holy guides of many different faiths agree that each person has their own “grace.” As Thomas Merton writes, “And each way is a grace, a special way is a special grace.”
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