“To thine own self be true”

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<p>This quote, borrowed from Polonius in Hamlet, was the quote chosen by three of my classmates for their yearbook quote, and again, two others used it during the National Honor Society induction. </p>

<p>I was taken aback on both occasions. For those who have read Hamlet (with relish) you probably know that Shakespeare was making fun of those who use such bromides within their insincere and trifling artifice.</p>

<p>At first, I thought it was just a misunderstanding of the play (at the NHS induction) then when the year book came out with three more of the same I wondered if it was more a sign of the times than a random misreading. I mean: 5 people with the same exact quote given the thousands of possible (good/better/meaningful) choices.</p>

<p>I’d always understood the play as Hamlet rising above the self, not embracing the status quos. Having taken special delight in the scene where Hamlet skewers Polonius behind the arras, almost as if Luke Skywalker had overcome the Dark Lord, I viewed this new self-satisfied trend as a turn to the ‘Dark-Side’.</p>

<p>Protecting/defending the ‘self’ now seems the dogma of the day. Transcending the ‘self’, it seems, is now considered passé at best and heterodox at worst. </p>

<p>I recently had the occasion to write a speech wherein I referenced an old Bill Cosby bit, it seems on a particular plane ride Cosby was seated next to a very hip popped-collar cokehead sporting a shiny Coke-spoon around his neck in the manner of an amoral crucifix. In the midst of the coke-user’s over-familiar banter, Cosby asked him why he puts that awful drug into his body. The man’s manic reply amounted to saying that cocaine didn’t impair your senses but simply made you more of who you are. And Cosby, reflecting upon his words, flamboyantly replied “what if you’re an ass-hole”.</p>

<p>I guess the answer of the day may very well be, ‘to thine own self be true.’</p>

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<p>Well, in the immortal words of Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter (which grace the frontispiece of one of my books:</p>

<p>“We must become ourselves before someone else does.” ;)</p>

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<p>People get Shakespeare wrong all the time. Whenever someone says “first, kill all the lawyers” with approval, I wince, because Shakespeare, of course, put those words into the mouth of a villain, who saysthis in order to cement his circumvention of civilized processes through violence.</p>

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<p>When un-ripened sentiment and wisdom collide, suppose who wins…and un-mourned dies?</p>

<p>–what a Cad(e);)</p>