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Cleaning out my drafts file before going in, and I found this from last summer. I don't think I ever posted it...

It's 2:40 am and I'm wide awake missing all of you from MWF '07 and those from previous seasons as well.

I'm staying in my great uncle's house because my parents don't have enough room for me right now, while I'm here in Southern Oregon to perform three different plays back to back. This is a first for me, so I appreciate your prayers...especially since you're keeping me awake...just kidding.

As an adult, every time I enter my great uncle's house it feels so much smaller than I remember. It's one of three homes on our family's 70 acre farm 25 miles north of California. My grandpa and his brother built two of the homes by hand when they started farming about 70 years ago. Then Dad moved onto the farm when he took it over. You can see the view at RichDrama.com/NewsBlog (7/29ish/07). All three homes are just large enough. As a kid they always seemed plenty big. We had Thanksgiving in the home in which I'm trying to sleep. Now it seems so much smaller than I remember.

I think it's not just that we're so much larger than the selves that fit into our memories of these places, but our expectations of what's big enough has changed.

Relative to the homes of Compassion kids I've visited, where I've seen as many as 10 share a single room, this is a mansion. Relative to the one-bedroom apartment Joyce and I keep in NYC it's substantial. But I've stayed in a lot of homes (about 100 a year), since my rider states that I prefer to stay with host families than in hotels. That's to keep expenses down for host venues, but also to get to know families. Granted, I don't tend to get hosted by people with smaller homes, but I do think that as a society we have a propensity to wanting more and more.

I believe I missed part of my calling because of that propensity.

I'm trying to sleep just a few miles from the Ashland Shakespeare Festival: One of the sources of inspiration for this crazy career choice. Because I took every workshop I could there as a kid I grew up knowing how poor actors are. That kept me from persuing acting as a career until it was actually happening. The Lord certainly worked through my choices, but I'm weeping to think of what He could have done through me had I not avoided this calling for so long.

Some of you fear poverty. Some of you fear wealth, because you're not certain you'd use it well.

Some of you are seeking identity through acting or through the great wealth it could provide if you "make it." You're a child of the King. You made it when you asked Him to accept you into the family. Don't allow fear of what the world thinks of you to instruct your choices.

Don't allow fear of anything keep you from God's calling. It may not turn out to be acting. I hope for many of you it is. But if God is calling you to it He will provide...enough.

MasterWorks Macao

Last night, after our presentation, we visited Charmaine Hunter at The Venetian. It's the largest resort of its kind in the world. It's on an island south of Macao, and it has Venice in miniature in its mall area.

Charmaine said how much she missed MWF ( http://MasterWorksFestival.org ) this year and how it grounds her.

Charmaine, in recounting MWF '08, I forgot to tell you that Steve Rooks choreographed a Tango as a part of the theatre department's production of Tartuffe. It was hilarious (as was the plan)!

Soon after arriving here Charmaine was promoted to a position in which she hires and trains performers for all the Sands properties in Macao (which are quite numerous). We're Hoping for continued stamina for her!

The Games are Open

I'm looking out my window at Hong Kong's nightly light show and at the opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics. Joyce, who's getting ready to fly here, said they're not showing it live. So, if you read this before it begins in your time zone, you really must see it! It's breathtaking. Literally thousands of performers in synchronicity telling the history of China. It includes the largest fireworks show in history. The colors, the lights, the spectacle (13 months of rehearsals, 50,000 costumes) is going to be in the world's memory until heaven and earth pass away.

As you watch, may it prompt your heart to Hope for all the Father's best for these amazing people.

Re: [The Swingles' Dramatic Developments] New comment on Olympic Champion in China: The Eric Liddell Story.

Yes, I'm safe, and the typhoon cancelled my first engagement, which actually helped me adjust to this time zone in a bit more leisurely fashion.  I was doing fine all day, and then at 8pm it hit me and lo I was dead to the world.  That's about the time I would have been engaged in conversation after my presentation.  Whew!

Filled with Hope,

Rich

On Aug 6, 2008, at 7:46 PM, Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Olympic Champion in China: The Eric Liddell Story":

Rich, I just saw on the news about the tropical storm hitting Hong Kong. Are you safe?

-Brandon

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Posted by Anonymous to The Swingles' Dramatic Developments at 7:46 PM

Sleep and memory

Joyce just read some excerpts to me from a fascinating article on the link between sleep and memory.  Not only is it more difficult to memorize when we're sleep deprived, we also become less creative!

Here's one of the most interesting factoids: 

Perhaps most fascinating, the emotional context of a memory affects where it gets processed. Negative stimuli get processed by the amygdala; positive or neutral memories get processed by the hippocampus. Sleep deprivation hits the hippocampus harder than the amygdala. The result is that sleep-deprived people fail to recall pleasant memories yet recall gloomy memories just fine.

There's something else I was going to mention, but I can't remember what it was. I'd better get to bed!

Here's the link to the whole article: http://nymag.com/news/features/38951/index2.html

in Christ alone,

Rich