Taking Opportunity by the Hair

Ten-minute break at rehearsal. 

I don’t sing...sing well, that is...but I’m good enough to backup others and so I’ve got a minor, albeit fun, role in a production of Into the Woods.  In the last couple of weeks I’ve joined with another cast member to create the two-person peanut gallery.  Cracking jokes about everything from lines, to music, to everything.  We’ve become convinced that Stephen Sondheim must’ve been on speed or some kind of upper when he wrote the music for this show.  Of course we’re just having a laugh at our inability to wrap our mouths around the songs which are really, really fast and full of tongue-tangling lines.

But there is a good line full of truth in the show:  “Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor.” 

The ancient Greeks depicted Kairos, which is sometimes translated as “time, period, or season,” as bald save for one lock of hair near his forehead.  He was always on toe-tips in any statue because he was running (and sometimes with winged feed) at a sprint because his presence is fleeting and so to make the most of it, you must grab his lock of hair as quickly as possible or else he may never come around again.  He’s here and then he’s not.

The Romans, understanding this as well as having their personification of opportunity (Occasio/Tempus), bequeathed to us the phrases carpe diem and tempus fugit.  While the first one everyone associates with seizing opportunity, the second not so much.  As Tempus was the Roman counterpart of Kairos, and Kairos was always depicted as running it creates a double meaning since “Tempus flies.” 

But, I digress.  Opportunity is short-lived.  Take it.  Sometimes you do have to “go into the woods” to get what you dream of most.  “Though it’s fearful, though it’s deep, though it’s dark, though you may encounter wolves...if you know you’re wish, you can have your wish, but can’t just wish, no to get your wish you have to go into the woods.”