Blog 3270 – 10.15.2024

Behind The Curtain

Most of us are content with the illusion and therefore are easily manipulated and kept sedated most of the time. Occasionally however some disjointed fact or obvious crack will give us pause to consider whether or not we are being deceived or mislead.

Like most of the poor white city boys I grew up with in the very racially segregated southern city of Chattanooga, Tennessee, I was very excited when I got to attend a locally televised Live Wrestling program as a boy. I got to go twice and the first time there was no curtain around the floor of the wrestling ring so you could see underneath, not on TV as the cameras never showed that in the middle of the floor underneath there were two large steel pipes, one inside the other, that clanged together whenever anyone was thrown on the mat in the middle of the ring. It sounded like they were being thrown through the floor. That was my first clue that Live Wrestling was staged and that the wrestlers were acting, performing, not really angry at one another.

The second time I went to see Live Wrestling, I noticed that they had hung a curtain around the bottom of the ring to hide the noise device from view and to help preserve the illusion that the throws were real. Don’t get me wrong, some of the things that go on in professional wrestling are dangerous, but these folks are first and foremost show people and practice together to make their moves look deadly, but they really are not trying to kill one another but arejust trying to put on a good show while keeping each other safe.

Behind the curtain far more goes on that what the audience is allowed to see. I am reminded of a line from a scene near the end of the 1939 movie classic The Wizard of Oz. In the scene Dorothy and her three intrepid friend have returned after accomplishing their mission of destroying the Wicked Witch of the West and to receive their promised rewards, i.e. a ticket home to Kansas for Dorothy, a brain for the Scarecrow, a heart for the Tin Man, and for the Cowardly Lion, courage. In all the commotion while the image of the Great and Powerful Oz tries to get out of keeping his promises, Dorothy’s dog Todo pulls back the curtain in the corner revealing a small man pulling levers and speaking into a microphone. Then the projected image of Oz yells, “Pay no attention to that little man behind the curtain.”

We would do well not to follow that advice, and from time to time to take a look behind the curtain to discover who is pulling the strings and for what purpose.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White