“ God is no Respecter of Persons”
Consider: the word “person” literally means a
“sounding thru”—not any THING at all.
Can’t touch a “per-son” because a person is the
sound sounding thru. In Greek theater, which
was a religious ritual aimed at provoking Catharsis
(a momentary purging of Fear and Pity,) the actors
(literally “hypocrites” or “role-players”) wore large
representative masques, each with a little megaphone
at the mouth, so their sound could be heard through
out the amphitheater.
The mask and megaphone was called a “per-son”—
personic. Persona and person derive from this literal
description and context.
I like that etymology. A person is no thing but a
sounding-thru. You might recall Shakespeare ’s
MacBeth
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
You might find the SOUND of that (or the MEANING)
negative. I could argue that it’s wonderfully descriptive
& neither negative nor positive—or rather: positive because
it unveils our materialistic “thing-y” bias and reveals
how-it-is we are all bags of breaking wind, yes?
Trans-formers articulating breath into
rat-a-tattoos of articulated sonar &
consonantal ratios signifying
things from no things, each
one of us natural born
idios telling our tales
on a social stage
where putting
it in play is
the thing
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