Back in the days when I used to 'chop wedding aplank3' (best man), I had just served as the best man at a friend's wedding and had been invited with other close friends and family to a dinner event in honour of the couple.
The dinner was preceded by a few speeches and I was called to respond on behalf of the newlyweds. I decided to address an issue that I knew plagued many marriages - and that is interference from the parents and relatives of the couple.
So, I used an analogy from the drama theatre. I said, "I am from the theatre and in the theatre, after I have prepared the cast for a production, I have to leave them on the day of production to do their own thing.
So I call on the families of the couple, especially their parents to leave the couple alone to build their home by themselves. Whatever you need to do for them, you have done; so keep off."
I was referring to the practice in the theatre where on production day, the director sits back to watch the cast give expression to his vision of the play. I thought it was a good speech and I felt that I had made quite an impression.
When I was returning to my seat on the high table, an elderly man invited me to sit beside him. And he said, "Young man, I also work in the theatre. But in my theatre, if I left the people for even a second, they would die." He was an anaesthetist.
The drama theatre to which I belong is different from the surgical theatre to which he belonged and yet in my speech, I had taken it for granted that there was only one kind of theatre. I left the man humbled.
There is more than one #perspective and world view to any #reality. It helps if we recognize this in our dealings with people.
My reality is not your reality. Your experience is not my experience. So who am I to insist that my reality is more authentic than yours?
And why should you insist that your experience is more valid than another person's? May we always remember what Apostle Paul said, "We only know in part." And make room for other's #experiences and realities.
Mr. James Ebo White, affectionately called Uncle Ebo White is a renown and Ghana's most successful playwright and author. He is the CEO of the company Roverman Production.
