In reference to my blog title January 21, 2008

Yet here, Laertes! Aboard, aboard for shame!

The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,

And you are stay’d for.

There … my blessing with thee!

And these few precepts in thy memory Look thou character.

Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportion’d thought his act.

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. Those friends thou hast,

and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;

But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatch’d, unfledg’d comrade. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel but, being in, Bear’t that th’ opposed may beware of thee.

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice; Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgement. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy;

For the apparel oft proclaims the man; And they in France of the best rank and station Are of a most select and generous chief in that. Neither a borrower, nor a lender be;

For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man. Farewell; my blessing season this in thee!

– William Shakespeare (Hamlet)  

 

 

Yikes, I actually cringe when I think of Hamlet. I really stuggled with the reading in high school. Sadly as much work as I did on reading the play I don’t recall a lot about it-retention-not my thing.

I just thought since I chose it for the title of my blog I’d finally write the reason why I chose it. To me that one particular line is about not fooling yourself (at the very minimum) about who you really are. I believe in just being yourself-let it all hang out-if somebody doesn’t like it they can walk as far as I am concerned. I honestly believe that people who try to fool others are transparent- most times we all can see right through them. So why not be true to yourself and everyone around you-why not reveal your true thoughts (of coarse there still are SOME things better left unsaid) and self?