November 9

Today I am thankful for Shakespeare. That may sound weird and totally random, but its not really. I went to Stratford- Upon- Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare, today. I walked around the city and saw his house and the houses of his family members. I got a glimpse as to what his life may have been like and the inspiration that was in front of him. His father was a leather worker who made gloves and he was on the city council. His family was a wealthier middle class family who had the ability to send their children to school. William went to school and had books of his own to learn from. He had gardens that surrounded his home that, I assume, brought much inspiration to him. He had the fortune of moving to London and seeing the growth of a city and people. He was well taught and well aware of what was going on in the world. If you think about the works that he has written and how famous they have become, we should all be thankful for him. He brought so  much to the world of literature. We say some things because he wrote them! We read his plays and have made him and his stories a part of our culture. His influence on the world, especially at the time, has shaped it into a more diverse one. In the sixth I read Hamlet in language arts and literature and I had to memorize a soliloquy, a set of lines that a character has that is spoken in secret from the other characters and toward the audience. Everyone chose "To be or not to be" and did a fine job. But I decided, at the advisement of my teacher, to do "too too sullied flesh" and I must say that I did a fine job too. In the last gift shop of the day, I found Hamlet and had to ask where too too sullied flesh was (sorry, I forgot). I flipped to Act I, Scene II and read the soliloquy. I read it with such conviction, like I was performing it again from memory to my class. I had remembered all of it! All of it was familiar- the words, the meaning, how I said them, how my body moved with the words. It was such a wonderful feeling! That will always be with me. Shakespeare not only affected me, but he has affected and taught so many in the last 300 years or so. He really is someone to be thankful for.

                    "All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players."

Until tomorrow.