January 15th, 2018 → 5:29 am
“The day shall not be up so soon as I
To try the fair adventure of tomorrow.” – King John
A new school semester begins this week. I approach it with eagerness and a sense of adventure!
Filed under: Blog & Other & Self/My Life
January 2nd, 2018 → 5:34 am
“Blessed are the peacemakers on earth.” – Henry VI, Part II
Here’s to a peaceful, happy new year. May we all work to make it one.
December 30th, 2017 → 5:52 am
“Anything that’s mended is but patched.” – Twelfth Night
I have always hated the platitude, “whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” It is so patently untrue. If you’re hit by a car and have surgery to your organs, those organs are forever compromised. If you lose a parent when you are young, then you forever lose the bulwark of their protection, guidance, and aid. If you are raped or otherwise abused, you forever-after harbor a fear in the depths of your soul; a crack, that with the right pressure, breaks open and ruins you at the most inconvenient times. You may very well survive your injuries, and, if you are exceptionally lucky, survive without bitterness, but stronger? Never. To believe so is to live beneath a gossamer web of candied ridiculousness. Injuries are patched, often colorfully, even artfully, but definitely patched, mended, bucked up, and held together with but thin layers of hope, prayer, and fortitude. Here’s to my own mosaic wonderfulness!
Filed under: Blog & Other & Self/My Life
December 18th, 2017 → 6:51 am
“Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remembered.” – Hamlet
orisons – prayers
It may very well be that the only reason I’m not familiar with the word ‘orison’ is because I am secular. To be honest, I didn’t even really know what ‘fellowship’ was to evangelicals until Kayla Moore used it in describing her ‘Jew’ friends. But I know the word now, and could sure use more of them these days.
November 28th, 2017 → 5:55 am
Isabella: “Or with an outstretch’d throat I’ll tell the world aloud what man thou art.”
Angelo: “Who will believe thee, Isabel? My unsoil’d name, the austereness of my life, my vouch against you, and my place i’ the state, will so your accusation overweigh, that you shall stifle in your own report and smell of calumny.” – Measure for Measure
An opinion piece in The New York Times today documents this description of sexual harassment in the play Measure for Measure. Angelo’s little speech ends with, “Say what you can, my false o’erweighs your true.” Ugh. Ick. Blech. Gag. Women have been dealing with this crap for forever. It is truly exhausting.
Filed under: Blog & Other & Stupid/Evil People
October 20th, 2017 → 7:56 am
“Her voice was ever soft,
Gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman.” – King Lear
Let women continue to speak up, and let the world be sure to hear them.
Filed under: Blog & Other & Self/My Life
October 16th, 2017 → 6:10 am
“The poop was beaten gold.” – Antony and Cleopatra
‘Poop’ in no way means poop in this sentence; it refers to a short deck built over the main deck in an old sailing vessel. But if my seven year old son had been reading the text with me when I came across this sentence, he would have devolved into helpless laughter. So this morning’s post is for all of you seven year olds out there, with an appreciation of silly humor.
June 13th, 2017 → 5:57 am
“‘Tis strange. A threepence bowed would hire me,
Old as I am, to queen it.” – Henry VIII
So Shakespeare didn’t actually write the word “quean” here -Â meaning a prostitute or an ill-behaved girl – but my Shakespeare text (David Bevington, 4th edition) notes that speakers of this passage would imply “quean” where “queen” is written, in a kind of wink-wink to the audience. (“bowed” could also be pronounced as “bawd”). Now I’m wondering how many other times in Shakespeare when I see the word “queen,” might an actor pronounce it to imply prostitute!
(I’m also thinking how sad it is there is no parallel for “king.”)
May 10th, 2017 → 5:47 am
“I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done
than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching.” – The Merchant of Venice
Apparently yesterday was national teacher’s appreciation day, or Teachers’ Day. I didn’t realize this until a student reached out to me to thank me. I’m always so humbled by that. Especially as it is easier to be the teacher, than the student sometimes. Shakespeare clearly understood that.
May 2nd, 2017 → 5:28 am
“To climb steep hills
Requires slow pace at first.” – Henry VIII
I wasn’t familiar with this pithy aphorism before reading it in Shakespeare the other day. (Warning, I’m currently re-reading Henry VIII, so I’ll likely be quoting it a lot in the next few weeks.) It is true, though: to get something big done, pace yourself.