-By Vince Johnson
There is a surprising course awaiting your discovery in Chemeketa’s 2008 summer class schedule.
It is about something more important than computers, or history, or math, or nutrition or any of those things. In fact, this course may very well be dealing with the most important subject you can learn about in your entire life. I know this first-hand because I experienced this course last summer.
It is a three-hour course starting Saturday, June 28, and yes, if you haven’t guessed already, I’ve registered to experience it again this summer. Notice that I said “experience” this course rather than “take”. You can’t “take” this kind of course because it is an “experience” and one that will find a permanent home wherever your pleasant memories are kept.
When you “take” a course, as in History or Biology, you learn by using a combination of thought processes requiring logic, memory, reasoning, etc. Emotions have nothing to do with it. When you “experience” a course, you learn by using a combination of energies such as surprise, anger, bewilderment, fear, disgust, pleasure, etc. Emotions have everything to do with it. Yes, you can learn about emotions from courses in Psychology, Human Relations, Nursing, Counseling, etc. But you can learn much more about emotions by experiencing them rather than reading about them.
Think about apple pie ala mode for example. Think about the unique taste of cold ice cream mingled with warm and tangy apple wedges drenched in glistening cinnamon-flecked sugar syrup. And, all of this goodness clinging to flaky bits of tasty golden crust. Sounds yummy, doesn’t it? Well, let me tell you something. Reading about apple pie ala mode is one thing and actually experiencing the flavors and textures is something else. In short, you cannot understand flavor until you “experience” flavor. You cannot fully understand emotions until you “experience” emotions.
More clues about this course: It is a mix of psychology, public speaking, personality development, creative thinking, vocabulary development, diction, enunciation, human relations, humor, depression, anger, joy and on and on.
The course? It is “Acting” designated as TA 121 in the Chemeketa Catalog. The classroom is at the Pentacle Theater west of Salem. It runs from 9 a.m. to noon every Saturday for 8 weeks starting June 28. (See top left of Page 54 in Chemeketa’s summer catalog.)
Don’t forget one thing: In this class you will learn about the most important subject you will have in your entire life. At first you expect to be learning about acting and theater. As the course moves along, you gradually become aware that you are learning many new things about yourself. You observe others in the class gain confidence and self assurance. You become aware that your own confidence and self assurance are moving to new levels.
When you practice acting angry, you learn something about controlling anger. When you act afraid of something, you learn something about coping with fear. When you act like you are in charge, you learn about leadership. Yes, these are moments where we pretend, but in our pretending we are learning things about our inner selves as well as how we interact with others.
The Army has a famous slogan: “Be all you can be.” This acting course could have a similar slogan: “Find out who you really are!” The two slogans combine to create one of the most important questions you will ever face: “How can you be, all you can be, until you find out who you really are?”
Your age does not matter. I experienced this course for the first time last year when I was only 79. It was so much fun, I decided one experience was not enough, and I’m looking forward to opening day this year. If you want to discover some clues about who you really are, sign up now. Classes are small so don’t wait too long.
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Vince Johnson welcomes comments. Please send them to,Vince Johnson(vjadtrak@wvi.com)
See Vince in the new book Americans on Politics. Policy, and Pop-Culture.