Life as Performance Art

Life is a stage. I was thinking Performance Art would be close to Impressionist Art, but not so. We will look at Impressionist Art later.
How many ways is our life more performance - acting - than reality? If we go back to last week where we looked at the ways we display ourselves versus what others actually see, many times we perform intentionally. There are benefits and liabilities in performance art as a way of life. One benefit is in the axiom: "You cannot think your way into acting right, but you can act your way into thinking right." Another true statement is, "Practice makes perfect." This is true of both good practices and bad. The only way we learn behavior is by following explicit directions or mimicking what we see. Until the act becomes natural, it is performance. So the benefit of positive performance art is we develop positive, wholesome behaviors.
The downside is when we perform to prove we are not what we truly are. Sometimes this is a coping mechanism to protect ourselves from being taken advantage of - again. Men who are caring and sensitive perform the opposite because of the societal perception of masculinity. Women have ways of performing the opposite of their natural disposition, too.
One of the most detrimental aspects of our performing is we get typecast. What most people would refer to as stereotyping, is actually typecasting. We have performed in such a way for so long that this is what people come to expect from us. If you dress to look a particular way, plan to be treated like people who have that same appearance. Chris Rock said, in so many words, "If you don't want to be treated like a particular group of people, don't wear the uniform."