Sunday, December 10, 2017

Monologue Mania Day # 1397 Soul Sticks (for the Winter Solstice) by Janet S. Tiger (c) Dec. 11, 2017

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Monologue Mania Day # 1397  Soul Sticks  by Janet S. Tiger (c) Dec. 11, 2017    

   This may be a few days early - but I really wish the sun would come back soon!

                                              Soul Sticks 
                                            (in honor of the Winter Solstice)
                                                       by  Janet S. Tiger    
                                © 2015  all rights reserved 
                                     tigerteam1@gmail.com


          (The actor is.....any age, as long as he can bounce a ball)


I was a little boy when I first heard about something very frightening....it was scarier than anything at Halloween, because I had just learned about my eternal soul in Sunday school....and suddenly there was the (shudders)..... soul sticks........would damnation be involved with my soul?  How would it beat me with the sticks?

         (He runs and crouches down at the edge of the stage)

My father found me hiding before church one day, and when he figured out what was going on, that I had misheard the word...Solstice....to his credit, he didn't laugh, he even said he thought it was a great idea!

And then.....he sat down and explained what the summer and winter solstices were.....and I was intrigued.....here were amazing things happening in the sky and I had no idea!  But it was confusing....and my father could see it in my eyes.....so he looked around the closet where I had thought no one could find me and found a ball, the kind that bounced really well.

'Comere.....' and we went outside and he took the ball and dropped it on the ground....

         (He illustrates with a ball)

..'watch it'  and I watched as it bounced, then went up, then slowed and fell, repeating this until it stopped....

My father explained.....(as father) 'The way it works is that the ball is falling.....like the days getting shorter.....and then it hits the ground and at that very moment, it is neither dropping nor going up.  That is just like the solstice.....in the winter, the days are getting shorter until.....it stops, and the days get longer......in the summer is the reverse, days get longer, then it stops, and they start to get shorter.

Right at the moment when it switches, at that exact second....it is still...but it is so fast that no one could ever see it......like the days......

And it's the same with everything....even your soul.....your soul can be having the worst time....in darkness that seems to get deeper every day.....you look out and just when you think that things will never improve, there will never be hope again, your soul hits the bottom.....and for a moment it sticks, but it's so fast, like the ball, like the days.....that you barely can tell things have changed for weeks, because the change is so small, every day, that you think nothing happened....but it did....and one day you look around and you see the sun is out, and you smile and you realize things are better......and they keep getting better, and there's more sun and more light.....like when you meet someone you love, and there's more love and more light, and then you have a baby ....and that light shines like the middle of the summer in the north....for almost the whole day.....but it never lasts......the sun never lasts, and the dark never lasts....

And if you can remember that.....each day is blessed.  Because your soul knows to enjoy the sun, and not to fear the dark.....

        (He turns to leave, stops, looks back)

And that's why I still love these days where the ball bounces.....where the .....soul sticks......

          (He bounces the ball as he exits.  Welcome back, sun!)
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first posted - Day # 678 by Janet S. Tiger Dec. 21, 2015
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Note: A few words about 'free' -  all these monologues are protected under copyright law and are free to read, free to perform and video as long as no money is charged. Once you charge admission or a donation, or include my work in an anthology, you need to contact me for royalty 
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Janet S. Tiger    858-736-6315                CaregiversAnon.org
Member Dramatists Guild since 1983

Playwright-in-Residence
Swedenborg Hall 2006-8