Ham People

🙂

If we do not know what we truly are,
we become unskilful, ham* actors.

We all ham it up. We are ham-fisted; we act out theatrics, scripted by adopting excessively emotional and dramatic behaviour. Religious theatrics display this quite accurately.

If we are unaware, we become a predictable performer, unable to fit into ever-changing scenes. We feel like a fish out of water – a person who feels awkward or unhappy because they are in a situation that is not familiar, or because they are different from the people around them.

When we stop acting out our staged persona,
we start to wake up, and become the audience.

We can then smile at the antics that we take so seriously.

*The term “ham” was first a pejorative term used in professional wired telegraphy during the 19th century, to mock operators with poor Morse code-sending skills (“ham-fisted”). This term continued to be used after the invention of radio and the proliferation of amateur radio operators, and these “ham” amateurs were considered a nuisance. The use of “ham” meaning “amateurish or unskilled” is still used today e.g. “ham actor”.