Saturday, February 3, 2024

The Bard said it Best

As I deal with these painful days,  the pain resulting from several fractured vertebrae, the horrible, inaccurate, unprofessional comments of Dr. Deluge, the retina doctor, who told me my retinal condition was "because I was on Prolia" leading me to delay a Prolia shot  - with horrible results, my mind turns to Hamlet.   

He had to make a difficult choice and here are his comments (as supplied by William Shakespeare.)   

I live with the same dilemma each and every painful day!    


Speech: “To be, or not to be, that is the question”

(from Hamlet, spoken by Hamlet)

To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause—there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th'unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.

JOAN'S DEATH POEMS: COLLECTED! (A Work in Progress)

Erato: Muse of Poetry I did not write most of the works in his blog.  But I have loved and been inspired by them over the years.  And right ...