Act 1 of The Tempest
Image courtesy of George Romney / Wikipedia

“All the world’s a stage” - Shakespeare and The Plays…

As a little kid I did a lot more playing than reading. I seldom read anything, being way more interested in most anything outdoors… climbing trees, riding my bike, playing GI Joe, acting goofy…

I’m a fascinated newbie when it comes to Shakespeare. I started writing about his work last fall. From what I have gathered, he gained influence from several other writers, including those who scribed God’s inspired word that makes up the Bible. Shakespeare also had a profound love of nature. Yep, Shakespeare was FOR the birds!

Just rattling on with The Bard…

How do we get there from here? An expression of hope, right?
You can’t get there from here. A roundabout way of saying it’s just not going to work.
Saving the best for last. The last act, and the curtain call.

The better I do at planning for the future, the less I have to be concerned with cleaning up from the past. (Click to Tweet)

What’s that got to do with it? Saving the best for last…

Indeed, Shakespeare was a playwright. With that said, perhaps the most profound element of his writing that makes it stand out is that it utterly opposed the neoclassical theory of style.

Shakespeare’s plays followed a very interesting pattern, or life cycle, that, upon reflection, tell a story in itself. Here’s why… as a generalization, Shakespeare’s plays followed a profound theatrical pattern…

– The early works were comedies and histories.
– Then, it was on to the tragedies.
– Ummm, you guessed it… the last hoorah… “The Late Romances”… well, some would say that romance is for the birds… and, yes, Shakespeare knew the exultation of joy that comes from our friends who go #tweet.

Whether you believe that the romances are a separate group of plays or not, the distinction is noteworthy… and it will stick in my book.

So, I’m guessing that you must be thinking I’m going to go off on an eloquent, harmonic spiel on Romeo and Juliet, “throwing off the name” and sacrificially giving in to the heartfelt romance that one would associated with the “love month” of February… particularly since, on the day after Valentine’s, my heart just throbs with each beat to the tune of a sonnet… weeping like a well-tuned violin that is being stroked by a rosined bow… and filled with a crescendo of the perfect love that God envisions for the multitude… a cappella… ahhhh yes, the oneword… dolce!

Well, I’m not thinkin’ that, so back to the storyline… 🙂

The rains fell and overcame the fire. Steam rose from the burning embers. Eventually, the steam subsided, leaving just ash. (Click To Tweet)

So, as I mentioned, I was reading more about this fellow and found out there was incredible symmetry with the Bible. After banging around with Macbeth, which is a sort of twisted tale, I settled in with The Tempest to ramble on about…

The Tempest. It seems dark. Well, to be honest, my church seems dark inside, but it’s really not “dark” – in terms of a reflection of the light of God. Yes, when you walk inside this and many other contemporary churches today they seem dark inside…

“There came a man who was sent from God, his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.” John 1:6-8

So I’m thinking that people aren’t really light or dark… they may be a reflection of one or the other… just like the character Prospero. It’s postulated that Prospero represents God in The Tempest.

The Tempest seems sort of dark, too. It’s filled with illusion, manipulation and magic… there’s a storm and an island…

Here’s a wonderful summary of this work and it’s parallel to the Bible, written by Hannibal Hamlin, associate professor of English at The Ohio State University, he is co-curator of the Manifold Greatness exhibition at the Folger Shakespeare Library.

“Shakespeare’s interest in this plot has to do partly with exploring humanity in isolation from civilization. What happens when people are forced to fend for themselves, without the aid of law or civic institutions? Seventeenth-century explorers to the New World were asking similar questions as they encountered native people living seemingly in a state of nature. Were such people brutal savages, in need of civilizing, or were they noble innocents, free from the corruptions of European society? The Tempest explores such questions, often in biblical terms.

Shakespeare’s island is a kind of Eden, presided over by the God-like figure of Prospero, with Ferdinand and Miranda as a version of Adam and Eve, and Ariel and Caliban and angel and devil. As in the Genesis story, temptation and obedience are crucial: Prospero charges Ferdinand and Miranda not to have sex before they are properly married, anxious about the temptation they offer each other alone on the island. Prospero and his brother Antonio may also have a biblical model in Cain and Abel, the first brothers and the first murderer and death. For Shakespeare and his contemporaries, the Bible was the place to go for puzzling out life’s big questions: can siblings really get along? can anyone? are humans inherently wicked or just corrupted by society? are forgiveness and redemption possible in this world?”

“All the world’s a stage…” – to me, that says it’s more about the journey than the destination. The journey, and discovery… living in the light…

Oh to know the voice of thy Shepherd and to achieve unity within our church, and to be held in the bosom of God… only then may we take a bow and the curtain call…

What do you think about life’s big questions?

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The important things in life…

Hmmm, I wonder what he could have done with one of these #hashtag critters…

If you follow my writing closely you know that I enjoy an occasional #playonwords. I’ve coined a few new words myself, some of which you can find at the Urban Dictionary. So I found out recently that Shakespeare originated over 1,700 words! #OhMyLexicon, that’s almost a language in itself!! Some of his word usage forever modified the accepted norm… he changed nouns into verbs, verbs into adjectives, added prefixes to some and suffixes to others. #catchmydrift? So he rounded out some thoughts. Here are just a few examples of words that Shakespeare created:

#Puking. Well, when I read my e-mail spam I usually want to puke… but that’s OK because I usually don’t even bother reading it and just delete it without noticing what it says… unless I really want to puke, or am interested in an occasional good chuckle.

#Bet. Every time I see this word I think of Flintstone, there was an episode where Freddy had a gambling problem… all I remember is him saying, “Ba baa baa ba baa ba ba baa baa BET!” He couldn’t stop himself. Hey, but wait a second, didn’t Flintstone predate Shakespeare??

#Majestic. Oh wow, the Christian Writers Blog Chain just used this one recently, my contribution was “The Grand Canyon: A Majestic Walk Through Time.”

#Hobnob. This is a brand name for a biscuit sold in the UK. You, too, can get yours at jollygrub.com. Ha!! And you thought I was going to say something curt about hobnobbing with celebrities… you know, the fine art (well, not really) of schmoozing, rubbing elbows, or otherwise pretentiously chumming up with the socially elite. You too, can get your hobnob on… the season is almost upon us. Please just don’t hobnob on Sunday morning, OK, this walk is really all about Jesus… unless, of course, your “hobnob” involves dunking one in milk before the worship service… UK style.

#Swagger. Did you all catch that lead-in… pretty sweet, eh :-). To walk or carry oneself with insolence. Sorry, we’ve gotten way off track now and we need to quickly turn this boat on it’s keel… there was nothing #pedant about Jesus’ walk!!

Jesus pretty much summed it all up when He said, “Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” Matthew 5:37

OK, one more… #Zany. So the U.D. says this word is “out of fashion.” Pshaw!! (they probably don’t dig that word either). OK, so Zany was coined in the early 1600’s, it’s still whimsical to me!

… and so the list could go on and on… but I promised we would get this train back on the track (or did we agree to get the boat on it’s course today… hee hee!), so without further delay…

If he had a #hashtag…

Sonnet #116, to me, is one of the most beautiful and eloquent ever written. But what was The Bard really getting at? My take is in green…

Let me not to the marriage of true minds                       #biteyourtongue
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,                           unconditional love = #letyouryesbeyes
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark                                           the lighthouse (then a bit about storms)
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;              this is all making more sense now, right?
It is the star to every wandering bark,                            Love = guiding light to every lost ship
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.   #invaluable and also #measurable
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks        #truelovegrows
Within his bending sickle’s compass come: 
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,                #loveendures
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
   If this be error and upon me proved,                             #TakeItToTheBank
   I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

#keeponsmiling 😉

Shakespeare’s #PlayOnWords …

Do you have a favorite buzz word, or Bible verse for today?

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One thing is certain-teed… God’s love rules… every time 😉

Star-Crossed Lovers…

I googled it and got confused just reading about it at Wikipedia…

so I thought I would muse about it…

and the certain-teed outcome…

There is something steamy brewing and since we’ve already been talking some Shakespeare here, I thought it would be cool to tack on some love and romance this week, because a week without love is like a week without the Son shine!

One school of thought on the term “star-crossed” suggests that this relationship between two lovers is thwarted by some outside force.

OK, so let’s assume, for the sake of our discussion, that this soiree isn’t getting busted up by the providential will of God… that’s it’s some menace that is mucking up the waters. In other words, God’s all in with His will… Romeo and Juliet are gung-ho full speed ahead… and there’s just a wee bit of drama that needs to be ironed out. This malign star, assuming it’s a somebody, and whoever that may be, is being a stick in the mud.

And so… the love quote (got to give it up!)…

“Anything is possible with love and patience.” (Click to Tweet)

The Romeo and Juliet’s of the world are sometimes thought to be doomed from the get go… the astrological pairings that are more based on lust than true, unconditional love. You know, the “for sure it was fun!” memories… those that were never meant to fulfill prophecy or anything like that.

Interesting fodder… but not the stuff that Jesus’ Love is all about…

Smoking hot passion combined with courage and wisdom produces the strongest bonds… the electrostatic force of attraction produces an ionic bond… where one atom looses the electron and another atom gains it, creating a very strong bond. Stuck together… and never coming unglued again!

Thinking rationally… yep, I actually put those two words together (just like the SC and I were talking about rearranging the alphabet… specifically something to do with the letters U and I… hee hee). Something I’m digging from Dan Miller’s new book, Wisdom Meets Passion is just that… that it’s A-OK to have passion in our world today… just be wise about it. So whenever the moon, stars and God’s will are in alignment… it’s so incredibly obvious that it was just meant to be. It answers the question “what if?”

Closing the curtain on the last act… is fate really all in the stars? Don’t know, I’m banking on it being in God’s hands… that He’ll open and close the doors, shining a warm, bright light on the favored pathway. You see, God’s will is sort of like charging admission to a staged event… there’s a script, the act is rehearsed, and the desired outcome is cemented and applauded by the audience… and there’s joy peace and love… settling in as a perfect match that’s heaven-sent… stay tuned…

Do you feel the spirit moving in this certain-teed outcome of the two star-crossed lovers?

Isn’t it exciting to postulate the future?

One thing is certain-teed…

God’s love rules… every time 😉

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Plug ‘er In !!!

I can’t imagine there will ever be a writer that could come along and replace William Shakespeare. Much like Beethoven and Mozart, the two great composers of music, the written word just seemed to flow from this Bard fellow…

I never really put much thought into this until recently. Sure, I waded through Theatre Appreciation at the University of Florida. Yea, I remember it well… but it didn’t really move me back then… I took the class for cultural enrichment as an easy elective… classical music, on the other hand, I loved (and likewise, Music Appreciation), but the written word just did not move me all that much in that day and time.

This is the meaningful part… at least to me… and I’m hoping it might inspire you…

I didn’t pick up on this writing thing until much later. Somewhere along the way everything changed. For me, it wasn’t just all of a sudden… it was a gradual transformation. One that I can point to a number of events that moved me in a different direction. Most notably, it was through the power of the Holy Spirit that I was given a gift… a passion… much like that fruit of the Spirit thing… it’s like plugging a lamp into a light socket… the instrument… vehicle… or tool… sort of “comes alive” if you will.

That seems to be what’s sort of transpiring with me at the moment with the Holy Spirit… and with Shakespeare’s poetry… I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to write any poetry, haven’t tried that one just yet… but I am curious and it does speak to me like never before.

So I thought I would write about it… thinking maybe it could help move someone else to follow the Holy Spirit wherever they’re being lead…

Here’s a piece of one of Shakespeare’s sonnets… it’s a love one (hee)… yep, that’s me! It’s believed that through the Sonnets that Shakespeare “unlocked his heart.”

Here’s Shakespeare’s 18th Sonnet…

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

This passage just breathes with love and life to me… stability… and carrying forward our themes of memories connected to everlasting and the perfect eternal beauty… this whole image is more precious than summer… and the crescendo of the exegesis, or interpretation of complexion… the dual meaning, in my perfect example anyway, of inner AND outer beauty…

A form of poetry, the Sonnet, as written by Shakespeare, includes a collection of 154 poems themed on the passage of time, love, beauty and morality.

Foreshadowing… if you know theatre (and me) you know where this is all leading to… Shakespeare… who wrote love and drama in the form of comedy, history and tragedy like no other… and finally… the last romances… blending this with a twist of lemon… toss in a few monkeys, a dash of adventure, and a pinch of sage… you’ve got the recipe for a really good chapter!

Q: Do you feel the Holy Spirit leading you anywhere in particular at this time?

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