Shakespeare: With Words like these!

Shakespeare yesterday was exactly 400 years dead, hozzah! Wait, no, is that cause to rejoice? I guess it is just a good time to celebrate what he brought to the world.

There are many art forms that provoke emotional response. Dance can bring you waves of happiness, or a feeling of great gravity towards a situation; art can do much the same, as can music, warming the soul, lifting spirits, displacing you from that which is around and about. However, there is something different about the art of the bard. Taking words, strings of 26 letters in different permutations and repetitions, that are used all the time, across all reaches of life, and transcending them to do so much more than just tell a story. It is not a skill, but a super power. To be able to write in such a way as to mimic the human tongue, and make the stories come to life on the stage is a form of magic. That was Shakespeare. Magic!

He has left a legacy, that I truly believe will last as long a we! It has given people of different nations, creeds, and contexts an equal field for soulful expression. It has been translated into eighty languages across the globe, being performed in Japanese, Hebrew, and Russian, along with being translated into… Klingon…

He invented over 1,700 words we use commonly, by changing nouns into verbs, verbs into adjectives, and connecting words that before hand would never have been seen together! Such as eyeball, dexterously, and watchdog. It is reported that ten percent of the most commonly memorized phrases, are those that were coined by Shakespeare. You, I bet, Break the ice, and Kill with kindness, regularly, well you should Give the devil his due, and acknowledge that Shakespeare was the one who gave you that terminology.

Some may think that Shakespeare is outdated, and with such convoluted Elizabethan language, has no place being taught in English classes across the world, that children should be learning from more, contemporary classics. But Shakespeare is the root to so many of these books. Moby Dick, from Macbeth and King Lear, Dead Fathers Club, from Hamlet, or Brave New Girl, from The Tempest.

Then there are those whom say, “unless you are a die hard fan of the Bard, out of school, you don’t really notice him in the rest of your life.” You may not notice him, but he is there, in the music you listen to; The Beatles, Mumford and Sons, Taylor Swift {T-swizzle}… The shows you Netflix binge on; Breaking Bad with hints of Macbeth, Empire modernizing King Lear, and House of Cards with Frank Underwood showing many traits of that of Richard III.

The films you watch; West Side Story from Romeo & Juliet, The Lion King from Hamlet, 10 Things I hate about you from Taming of the Shrew, Batman…Okay not Batman, but still… though Hamlet perhaps?

Shakespeare gave me a voice in school through acting, and like many other teenagers, it is what built my confidence. It has inspired me, maybe not in as grand a way as some, but is definitely one of the influences I have to thank for when I do seek to entertain people, or write privately. I do not read regularly, but I do read Shakespeare, and yes I know it should be seen, and acted, but the direction through the expertly placed words, builds up all the stage and lights you need. In fact, I believe I may have read more Shakespeare, than all other book put together… Shakespeare and acting, is what built up a creative streak in me, that keeps me sane when the numbers and formulae get dull. I would not have the ability to speak publicly if it weren’t for me performing soliloquies in English, or Drama. Now he is not by any means my whole identity, but truly, I would not be who I am today without Shakespeare.

The Mountains we Climb

So I keep this part of my story short. As many of you know in twenty twelve I had a wee slip on a mountain side, in the Mourne Mountains. I was travelling down the Devil’s coach road, which cuts down the boulder field on the side of Slievelamagan. I posteriorly dislocated my right shoulder, ripping up cartilage and a whole manor of other soft tissue. That’s how it started.

Made it! Though can't see much...

So the day after Boxing Day, the 27^th December for my American readers, I went on a solo hike up Silent Valley past Ben Crom reservoir dam and up to the infamous Slievelamagan, well, infamous to me. I sat at the foot of it on a bolder looking up at it wondering if I would actually attempt it today, as there was some fog coming in over the top. Now this slope is not the most difficult, but it isn’t for those who are faint of heart. So I took a handful of peanuts, and I went for it. By half way up the fog really set in… and I probably should have turned around at that point, but alas I continued. I got to top finally and I was done, in so many ways. I sat on the top rock, and I ate a sandwich and took a selfie. Tell you, I know how to celebrate.

You know, the night before, I lay in bed tossing and turning because I knew I was at least going to climb up to it. I couldn’t sleep because I couldn’t get out of my head everything that mountain represented for me. I lay there in the dark, and I thought all the toughness that it brought to me. It was 14 dislocations, many minor, major, and reconstructive operations. It was chronic pain. It’s depression. It was self-destruction. It was addiction to pain medication. It was hours of sleepless nights. I really despised that mountain, because of all I felt I had been through because of it.

It took for me to start walking, for the fresh air to hit me, to actually start reflecting a lot clearer. If I hadn’t fallen on that mountain I would be a different person completely. If it wasn’t for falling on that mountain I would likely still had focused on studying medicine. If I hadn’t fallen, I would have finished school at the same time as my peers, this means I would not have gone to live in America for a year. If I hadn’t fallen on that mountain I would not have met some of the people I truly care about, from across the pond. I wouldn’t have met people that have lead me to challenge my perceptions of not only the world out there, but the world in my head, and explore how I process ‘stuff’. I would likely have not had the experiences that let me grow in my faith.

My point is if I look back on it now, I am glad my life has taken the path it has. Although I do have continuous pain (yay, and at only twenty!) if I hadn’t slipped up there, I likely would have slipped up horrifically in something, somewhere down the line.

Looking at the clouds bubble over, taken in Silent Valley.

I was once told by someone that God had made me slip, because he would then use it to show me a new path, to guide me. I think this person had it half right. God surely has opened my eyes and shown me multiple paths. But I don’t for one second believe that God made me slip. The god that puts negativity in our life to guide us, is not my God. My God is the God of love, who cares for all, who will not put us into negative situations, but will walk through it with us. Every, single, step.

The story of the woman in her dream walking with God along a beach, and looking back to see times of her life, and foot prints in the sand. At closer inspection she realises in the difficult times there are only one set, so she turns to God and queries it. God responds “In the hard times, there are only one set of footprints, because I carried you.” A story familiar by many. Though I am a tad more fond of the ending, God responds “In the hard times, there are only one set of footprints, because I thought it would be fun to hop” Maybe not as deep, though they both get across the message that God is with us through it all.

I have a huge issue with letting up control. I need control of situations, of people, and I promise I have been working on it and am a fair bit better than I was a couple years back. The thing that really crushed me initially with this injury was the lack of control I had. My body failed me, it seemed, getting very sick at times, for a teenager, with multiple cases of tonsillitis, and then shingles, which really shows how weak and tired my body got. And I had no control, all I could do was sit back and let the medication do its thing. Then there was the feeling of lack of control in the direction my life seemed to be plummeting. It was hard for me. But I have realised now that unexpected things do happen, and sometimes the only control I will have is the control over how I face the unexpected. And at that stage I rely on God, to have the strength to face it with grace, and courage, and humour.

One important thing I learnt, in the car park outside a Tijuana Flats no less, was how to express this belief, which I had start to grasp after a while of dealing with this whole debacle. It was that bad things happen because of life, not God. Life throws us massive curve balls at times, be it injury, a relatives death, cancer, but God gives us options, in those times of darkness, ways on, to something fresh. That doesn’t mean at all we escape this thing life has given us, it just means God will carry it with you till you do get passed it. God has walked me to here, and never once left my side. He brought me to America, to have my eyes, heart, and mind opened. Now he has bought me to Glasgow, and I am eager to see what I will learn here (not just in astrophysics).

Silent Valley 

Sometimes we can want to run away from the issues life brings us. Be this because it would stop the pain, or just make everything simpler; with God we don’t need to run. With God we turn and face the demons of life head on and break them down into chunks we can deal with, just bit at a time. Me climbing that mountain, was my way of finishing with it all. I now don’t see it as negative, but a turning point. We all in life have mountains to climb, just not all of them are physical ones like mine! But it takes time, it took me the best part of three years. I write this to maybe give hope to those who are struggling with something in life.

Looking down onto the waters of Ben Crom

I often remember a card that once arrived at our house a few years back. It told this story: A flood began to rise and a man became stuck on his roof, praying out for God to save him. A person comes by in a kayak and has space, so yells to the man “come get in my kayak!” “It is okay,” the trapped man responds, “God will save me!” He then prays again. Shortly a life boat comes by and the crew yell “we are here to help, get in the boat!” “It is okay,” the trapped man responds, “God will save me!” A short time passes, as he continues to pray, and a helicopter from the emergency response appears, they throw down a ladder, and say “climb up!” “It is okay,” the trapped man responds, “God will save me!” The water continues to rise, till the man gets too tired to keep his head above the water, and he drowns. He reaches the pearly gates and asks St Peter, “I prayed and prayed to be saved from the flood, but yet God did nothing, why?” “What are you talking about,” responds St Peter, “we sent a kayak, a life boat, and a rescue helicopter!”

God is there with you, and he will be there every step of the way, and he will give you options, you just need to look out for them and be open to them when they come about.

Peace,

Owain