The Prologue as the Intermission, or something like that.

A few people, okay, a couple people, gonna make me tell the truth aren't you? One person, has said to me, “What do you mean 'Vicar of Another Man's Life', in these blog entries?” I figure if one person asked then another might want to know. So, for your edification:

The New Lexicon, Webster's Dictionary defines Vicar as mostly priestly duties, how it works in the Episcopal Church, the Anglican tradition. It is the last line that the definition gives that I'm thinking of. It comes from, now it's only a slight stretch, but only stands to reason: “a representative, as the pope is called, 'the vicar of Christ.'” Now don't think that I'm trying to pass Vincent off as the vicar of Christ any more than we are the vicars of Christ as well, we are supposed to be his representatives here on earth. The stretch comes, but is it really a stretch, when we see that Vincent through his imagination becomes the vicar of another persons life, he thinks of what it might have been for him if he had been that person.

Really, it is a use of the word vicarious in a bit of a creative way, good ol' Webster helps me out again here; acting , or done, on behalf of someone else or in his place. Of someone else's experiences which one shares imaginatively..... Thanks Daniel. It would stand that the last part of the dictionary entry is the one that I'm working upon in these entries. It would also stand to reason that if you are living life vicariously, then it would make you a vicar.

Now, the character Vincent is ever so loosely a reflection of the great Dutch painter. He had a brother, Theo who is said to have been less than kind. He only saw Vincent for what he might be able to profit from his brother's talent. At this point in my plotting of Vincent's life I really don't see Theo doing that, but I'm not done writing about Vincent. If you know Van Gogh's work you will see mention now and again of titles of his works but you don't always see them as very obvious, other times it's blatant.

To answer another question that has been asked by a few people, and we can stop there because it has been a few people, “Is Vincent really Don?” I'm going to answer that question in a couple of different ways; I was told in Creative Writing Class in high school, Writing and Reading the Short Story and it is repeated time and again in many places, “write what you know.” I don't think that is always the world's best advice because it doesn't always send us out to research, to ferret out information that will help to make us grow and see even more of the world, even if it is a world past. The second answer to the question is simply, “sometimes,” Vincent has very Don like characteristics. It really isn't such a bad thing, or is it?

Being the Vicar of Another Man's life simply means to put one's self in the shoes of another. For me it means to put on his shoes, his hat, his coat and see just how far he travels and imagine what his conversations and experiences good be. If I am really Vincent.