Ah, but Little Hawk, at the moment, I am playing the part that has been given to me. In the same way that, say, Sir Laurence Olivier was fully aware that he was Olivier while on stage playing Hamlet, I am equally aware that I am playing a part while in this world (that, as Shakespeare so aptly said, is but a stage [perhaps in two senses of the word "stage"]). While I am here, I would be remiss not to play my part as well as I possibly can, and if that part calls for occasional confrontation, well, that's the within nature of the play. To deviate from the role I am called upon to play would be to fail to adequately present the work of the Author of that play, n'est-ce pas?

Another way of putting it:   if, while in the eighth grade, I was so intent on getting into the nineth grade that I neglected the full and proper pursuit of my eighth grade studies, I might discover that I must repeat the eighth grade. Counterproductive.

Perhaps this was best expressed by Rabbi Zusya of Hanipal. He said, "In the world to come, they will not ask me, 'Why were you not Moses?' They will ask me, 'Why were you not Zusya?'"

Don Firth