titular roles

No matter how much she tries to hide and be invisible it never works. Someone always calls her out. She gets too involved in something and forgets her own promises to herself. Somehow, she gets found out. 

Always awkward, often clumsy - she manages to call attention to herself. Often unintentional, especially when she's most nervous or afraid. She forgets to breathe or holds her breath for too long she just about passes out. 

She has a list of special people she keeps away from - those she does not like, those who hurt her most. But they always manage to root her out - they find her in the crowd or in the most obscure places. They have special skills they employ to grab her and pin her down. 

Samson & Delilah (1887) by Jose Etxenagusia

Years of practice, years of experience have finally made her life more bearable. Yet he can never claim joy or delight because - always - there's the dread. Of being discovered, of being found out, of being exposed. Held out for inspection - to be judged and found wanting. Punished and penitent. 

What does it take to blend in? To fade away into nothing. Inconsequential, of no account. Boring and colorless, ever so ordinary. Be quiet and stay calm. 

Where can she go for this peace and quiet? A reprieve from all the pompous pretense of a life lived in the harsh unforgiving glare of the public. Open to any opinion or judgement. 

Watched and weighed in every moment, with each action or movement. Exposed, hanging out on a limb. Trashing around in the gloom and fog - everything foreign, nothing natural. 

What would it take to fit in? 

And then one day a bunch or surly men and pontificating elders came to speak to her father. After much arguing and discussion, they departed, dragging her in their wake - clueless and terrified. 

Too many voices demanded her attention. Yelled at her to listen to their important instructions. But they were all shouting very loudly, speaking over each other. Out in the streets their words were a meaningless drone as she stumbled along in a daze. 

"He likes sensual women. . . .wield your wiles. . . .watch him carefully. . . .learn what he likes. . . .get him to trust you. . . .tell him nothing about yourself. . . .or why you are there. . . .seduce him. . . .to share his secrets with you." 

Whatever for, she wondered. Who was this great catch they expected her to snare? She was nobody and totally powerless - why her? 

Who would imagine they would become a power couple of biblical proportions. Historical archetypes of the all-powerful hero and the alluring temptress. Their storied tale of scandal and seduction retold in countless variations for all time. 

This towering mightily muscled hero of super human strength. Who had the power to singlehandedly win their war against hordes of Philistines. 

She a mere sacrificial lamb and human bait. The low lying fruit, ripe for the picking. Thrown at him in their unholy battle - in the privacy of the bedchamber since they had no chance out in the open. 

Samson was a hero though he was a bad leader. Swayed by his huge appetites, he easily succumbed to distracting desires and avaricious vices. Big, blunt, and brutal - his detractors were easily silenced. 

Delilah we know next to nothing about - not her ethnicity, nor her occupation. Who was she before Samson? And what befell her after his fall? 

Just another inconsequential voiceless pawn in a memorable moral tale. Doomed for all time as the she devil who cut Samson down at his prime.