From there it was a natural step to start creating and producing plays starting at age 13. By constantly being in at least one play (and sometimes two or three!) throughout my teen years, I got to collectively make believe a whole lot and doing so proved to be my rudder through adolescence. Taking on roles and playing each to the hilt, I can now see, proved a counterbalance to all the time I felt I had to make believe I was a straight boy.
In both developing a performance in a play as well as in improvisation, the willing suspension of disbelief -- in other words, the ability to just say Yes to the play and to the improvisation -- are key. Being able to shift gears with ease, from what one considers Reality into what one calls Pretend, happens all the time. Where this shift becomes perilous is when great swathes of our society suspend disbelief without acknowledging that they are doing so.
If you meet a friend on the street while you are on your way, running late, and your friend says "Fine" when you ask how he is, although he looks quite miserable, you're on your way without much trouble when you suspend disbelief and pretend you believe his answer.
But if Congress suspends disbelief when the likes of Dick Chaney and Donald Rumsfeld are claiming evidence of an imaginary weapons program in Iraq as justification for starting a war, we're stepping with eyes open and blinders firmly in place into another nightmare of greed over human values.
What does the reality of man-induced climate change have to do with belief these days? When moneyed interests enroll huge numbers of people as "climate change deniers," and paint the scientific community as a bunch of Godless panic queens, we're in trouble.
When we Americans make believe that we can "conquer" and "wipe out" groups of believers who find our invasions and destruction in their homelands to be reasons to hate us and to try to hurt us back, we're in trouble.
And when Christian missionaries feel holy when shaming a people out of their own 4000- or 9000-year-old cultures and belief systems, we're in trouble.
Each of us must be both willing and conscious of our own responsibility to decide before suspending our disbelief. Children at play discover hidden powers and strength in vulnerability. Adults making believe that the leaders of their religion or political party or corporation will speak the truth in a straightforward manner, are suspending disbelief just because it's easier than stepping back and questioning. They no longer look before they leap.
Come! Let's make believe you're the wizard and I'm the prince who needs help figuring out this riddle.... what powers do you have, dear Wizard?