“WHAT is the first thing you do in the morning?” asked the guru. I was one among participants in her class where the lesson was, essentially, Life. One of us answered, “Workout.” She was a model. The next one answered, still, “Workout.” He looked really fit, too. The next answered, “Brush my teeth.” The next, “Pray.” And so it went. “Coffee,” was an occasional retort. “Depends,” was what a couple of us smirked. Though the most common answer in this company of health buffs was: workout, workout, workout.
Then it was my turn. “What is the first thing you do in the morning?” I said, “Workin'. Then after, I workout.” Only the guru got it, that inner work, in my case, precedes the outer.
The first thing I strive to do in the morning is inner work, a communion with Light, a meditation upon it, capped by a prayer that the day be lived in that Light, from that Light, and thus be of that Light. And then the rest of my day plays out, externalizing. As within, so without.
In the art of acting (as in life), the without can be made to precede the within. Onstage, this is called externalization. It involves dressing as one’s character should, getting said character’s props in great abundance, taking good direction so that one moves in character, and so on, doing these external bits. Hopefully, from all the externalization, an actor is able to internalize a role. As without, so – hopefully -- within.
At dinner a few nights ago with friends who workin as I do, we spoke of the Baguio we would like to externalize. We spoke of regaining our forest cover, our clean waterways, our sweet tasting spring waters too, our brisk, invigorating mountain air, our city streets, our sidewalks, our people whose love for Baguio works itself out in the good ways. The rub: we need to collectively agree on and then internalize the meaning of “good” ways. That’s the job, especially the collectively agree part.