My Worlds and Welcome to Them

After a recent viewing of The Truman Show, a movie I like to re-visit on occasion, I was catching the credits on the way out, something I've seen a million times. (For some reason, this viewing caught my attention). As far as the actor credits, they're broken up into how you function in the show: Cristof's World(the show's creator and technical staff); Truman's World(all the actors and extras, and Truman himself); and the 'real' world of viewers around the globe. Three separate but interdependent realities. 

Sometimes I feel that's how my own life operates. Not in the deterministic sense that Truman's does(well, until he finally realizes what's going on), but in the sense of having different strata, different orbits going on at the same time.Yes, also unbeknownst to Truman, until the very end of the movie.

 I basically have three- excuse me, four such worlds: separate but interdependent, each completely self-contained, and with an entirely different cast of characters. Depending on how many associations you have in life, you may inhabit more of these worlds than I, but mine add up to 3(excuse me, 4). 

 World number one. My job of over 21 years carries with it of course all the folks I currently rub elbows with in the place where I work, plus folks with the same agency at other points all over the state, plus related businesses we work with--plus all the clients we take care of. Add to this all the folks I used to work with who're still around and in touch, plus a few from the place I worked at before. That's as far back as this world goes, but it's still inhabited by a lot of people! It's the most stressful of my worlds, the one I most need to get away from. 

World number two is the people I play music with, both current and past, musicians I've studied with, those I've just heard and met,  those who take and have taken guitar lessons, club owners and the like who've hired my groups and those I've played in, musicians I've met via the internet, and the many people I've met in conjunction with playing or writing music. Also a lot of folks, maybe even more populous than my working world. It's less stressful than world number one, but can become a bit too inbred on the local level and thus something one(this one anyway)has to get away from now and again.

My home life would be world number three. It's the least populous and the least stressful of my worlds. Basically it consists of my two cats(the only other residents here), neighbors, my brother and nephew, a few friends, and a few folks I check in with for financial/insurance/healthcare needs. There is the occasional domestic problem, but for the most part, I keep things as stress-free as possible here. After all, this is home!

   Last but certainly not least is my own private world. The world between my ears. In my own mind.  The world of the imagination. Sometimes you can get things in this world that you can't in the others. That's one of the things that makes it so nice. But I keep trying to get them in those other worlds too. Thank goodness I can always come back here though. Not an escape for all time(nor should it be)but still a refuge. In Truman's case, this was the world that saved him.  

From my worlds to yours.