June 10th, 2018 → 8:36 am
“Too famous to live long.” – Henry VI
Heartbreaking these suicides. May they now, at last, rest in peace.
Filed under: Blog
May 20th, 2018 → 5:45 am
“Eternity was in [their] lips and eyes,
Bliss in [their] brows’ bent; none [their] parts so poor
But was a race of heaven.” – Antony and Cleopatra
Yes, I watched the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle yesterday. As it happens, my son woke up early too and we watched it together – that was fun! God bless the new couple, and may they enjoy years of happiness together.
May 18th, 2018 → 5:45 am
“Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel.” – Hamlet
I made a new friend yesterday afternoon, and then met up with an old friend after work for coffee. A medium friend (what do you call someone who isn’t a new friend or an old friend, but a recent friend of 2-3 years??) I found out is leaving the United States at the end of summer and moving to the Netherlands; I don’t know when I’ll see her again. Friends come and friends go, they give pleasure and sadness, and if I could grasp some of them with hoops of steel, believe me, I would.
Filed under: Blog & Other & Self/My Life
May 7th, 2018 → 5:54 am
“The seasons alter…
the spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries.” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The semester is ending, the weather is turning, neighbors are moving, colleagues are retiring, change is afoot. I feel the need to grasp onto something steady, heavy, and strong. As the rivulets of life rush past, cool, wet, and murky, I look into the waters and consider. And sigh. And then, as a yellow butterfly winks past, I slip off my shoes and step into the stream and enjoy.
Filed under: Blog & Self/My Life
May 1st, 2018 → 6:20 am
“Beauty, truth and rarity,
Grace in all simplicity,
Here enclosed, in cinders lie.” – Phoenix and Turtle
It broke my heart to read about the letter a woman wrote to her husband, just before she was put on the trains to Auschwitz. It is amazing the letter survived the Holocaust at all; it is even more astonishing how love, it seems, can shine through anything.
April 22nd, 2018 → 6:44 am
“Look thou character.
Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar;
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel,
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatched, unfledged courage. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
Bear’t that th’opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man…
Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow as the night the day
Thou canst not then be false to any man.” – Hamlet
It’s Shakespeare’s birthday sometime this week (we don’t actually know the exact day), and in the interest of saluting the bard, I’m quoting some of his pithiest advice. There are some really good nuggets in there. Hard to pick a favorite, but… today maybe it’s… ‘Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.’
Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art & Other
April 14th, 2018 → 6:44 am
“Unless hours were cups of sack, and minutes capons,
and clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials the signs of leaping houses,
and the blessed sun himself a fair hot wench in flame-colored taffeta,
I see no reason why thou shouldst be so superfluous
to demand the time of the day.” – Henry IV, Part I
This quote reminded me of my mother, who was famously bad at small talk. A woman in an elevator once said to my mother, “Nice weather we’re having.” To which she replied, “I find that insignificant.” Ah, my mother… A flawed but fierce woman, whom I miss terribly….
[Note: “leaping houses” refers to brothels, and “dials” to sundials]
Filed under: Blog & Self/My Life
March 27th, 2018 → 6:43 am
“Murder most foul.” – Hamlet
I don’t know why, but I was shocked to read about the murder of an 85 year old Holocaust survivor in France yesterday. To have survived the Holocaust, and all its barbarity, to then be stabbed 11 times and lit on fire in your old age? Wow. And some say anti-Semitism isn’t a concern. Just, wow.
Filed under: Blog & Stupid/Evil People
March 25th, 2018 → 6:24 am
“Prevent it, resist it, let it not be so.” – Richard II
I am so proud of our youth today. They are strong, they are intelligent, and they are not giving up. They are exactly what this country needs.
Filed under: Blog & Politics/Politicians
March 19th, 2018 → 5:22 am
“He wears the rose
of youth upon him.” – Antony and Cleopatra
I took my seven year old son to college yesterday. We just needed to stop by my office so I could get something I’d left behind, but my son entered one of the empty classrooms and began strutting in front of the chalkboard, imitating his elementary school teacher. “Who can tell me the difference between NON-fiction and fiction? Anyone?” We played teacher for over an hour. It was so adorable. Maybe my son will go into education himself one day!
Filed under: Blog & Self/My Life