Vent … a Series of Takes

Ron, the author of Vent, com­pares his life to a series of takes in a film. What a unique way of describ­ing life’s expe­ri­ences! But believe me, it does fit Ron “to a t.” This Philadel­phia native not only is a pro­fes­sional actor and jack of all trades, but also a story teller extraordinaire.

Out of the many excel­lent takes, I have cho­sen one upon which to bestow the Post of the Day Award that is at the same time both pro­found and personal.

It con­cerns Rein­car­na­tion or, if you pre­fer, that feel­ing of “déjà vu.” In Rein­car­na­tion … Liv­ing Before, Ron shares a very per­sonal take on past lives. He sums up his phi­los­o­phy on the sub­ject this way:

I believe that life is like attend­ing school and the whole pur­pose of being here is to expe­ri­ence things that my soul has come to learn. And I also believe that it may not be pos­si­ble to expe­ri­ence these things in one sin­gle lifetime.

How to explain feel­ing famil­iar and com­fort­able in a place where you have never trav­eled to? I haven’t per­son­ally expe­ri­enced “déjà vu,” but it is quite uncanny to hear of sto­ries like these.

All of this started for Ron when he left with an act­ing troop to per­form for two months in Kobe, Japan.

Now Japan was not a place I ever had the desire to visit, nor was it a place I ever thought would hold any inter­est for me. But I accepted an act­ing job because I thought it would be some­thing new to expe­ri­ence, and also because the salary was very attractive.

Enter Japan­ese stage left, Amer­i­can actor:

No mat­ter how bad you may want to go to another coun­try, there will always be some cul­ture shock once there. It all depends on your char­ac­ter and your abil­ity to adapt to new sit­u­a­tions. After all, we are all the prod­ucts of our cul­ture. I should know; I’m a U.S. expat who has spent the past 18 years liv­ing in France.

But what hap­pened to Ron is no less amaz­ing. He did not get cul­ture shock or freak out; he totally tuned into the coun­try and its cul­ture. And in a very deep way … tears, emo­tions and a feel­ing of what Ron calls “a deep con­nec­tion.” So much so that when his plane was leav­ing Japan, he said to a good friend, “I feel like I’m leav­ing my home.”

I encour­age you all to read this beau­ti­ful post.

Even if you per­son­ally do not believe in rein­car­na­tion, you can’t deny that some­thing spe­cial hap­pened to Ron in Japan.

It is with plea­sure that I declare Rein­car­na­tion … Liv­ing Before the Post of the Day and wish Ron many more inter­est­ing takes on life to share with the world!

Bar­bara

Tech­no­rati Tags: Post of the Day Award, The Ris­ing Blog­ger, Vent … a Series of Takes

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