I'm a Shakespeare fan, and like all nerds that are enthusiastic about a piece of culture, I notice when people take something that I enjoy and use it inappropriately. A popular abomination is from a line from "Romeo and Juliet" in which Juliet says "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" Romeo, as you may remember, is down below listening, hidden in the courtyard beneath Juliet's window. (There was no social media, else Romeo could have avoided the label of literature's oldest stalker by compulsively refreshing Juliet's Twitter feed from the privacy of his smart phone.) People hear the word "Where" in that sentence, and assume it means that Juliet is searching for Romeo, but they are wrong. She isn't looking for her new lover; she's lamenting that she has fallen for him. "Why are you Romeo? Why couldn't you be anyone else, rather than the son of my family's enemy? This is why we can't have nice things."
"All the world's a stage," William Shakespeare also famously wrote. People often misinterpret this phrase, when embroiled in conflict with another person or themselves, to mean "people play roles and wear masks." It's a poetic way for some folks to call others fake, or to reassure themselves that the disingenuous part they are about to play is a normal part of humans being. Just as in the first example, that's not what Shakespeare meant by that line. Sure, we have to do things against our nature throughout our lives, but the full passage of that quote is about something deeper. If you're a Clif's notes kinda cat, feel free to skip:
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
-As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII
It is about how many changes we go through as we live our lives. Our priorities shift, our bodies swell and shrink. Should we live a long life, we become what we were in the beginning: toothless, helpless, and fragile. Life's scenery changes and requires new things of us, and we must adapt, or else our story is written by others who must make us fit somewhere. (Don't want to pay for the things you want, and decide to steal? That doesn't fit into the scenery of adulthood in our culture. The police will find you a place where you fit, and you will have to write the rest of your story on toilet paper that they must legally provide you.)
When you spend almost 35 years pretending that you don't exist, that life really is a long string of performances you must put on for survival, breaking the habit is hard. It's like waking after too little sleep, and it leaves me blinking in the blinding light of authenticity. To be true, to be good, to be sincere, to be present...I manage one at a time, intermittently, on my best of days. But I aspire to be all of those things, all of the time: to speak gently but intently, with a full voice given words by clarity and sincere awareness. To listen as hard to another creature as a parched tree may listen for thunder; as carefully as Kanye listens to Kanye.
DISCLAIMER: Authenticity cannot be a constant for everyone, all of the time. Boundaries must be erected to protect pursuits like employment; anyone ever fired for a Facebook status about their job can attest to that. Unfiltered thought and authenticity are not the same thing for most human beings; compassion and kindness spare our fellow travelers on this journey from every jaded, bizarre thought we have. e.g. I do not tell my stepson that a new pet he tamed on World of Warcraft looks exactly like the last 8 sporebats he tamed. I act interested. Because family counseling is expensive.
