Willy, Oscar, and Me

Last night I spent an enjoyable time at a party hosted by a gracious young lady named Jesi. It was a night where both wine and conversation flowed and I was more than willing to be swept away by both. The theme was "A Night With Shakespeare" and in addition to having food and drink we were treated to a brief talk on the representation of Shakespeare on film and then scenes from Shakespeare's "As You Like It" were performed by members of the cast from Coronado Playhouse (who will be performing the play at the playhouse gratis!). Of course, one of the scenes they performed was the famous "All the world's a stage" as spoken by Jaques. I don't know all of it but what I do remember (from my college course 20+ years ago) is this:

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts

For some reason I immediately began channeling Oscar Wilde. Perhaps it is because I am currently reading his published letters, but through the slight fog of wine my synapses cobbled together the following lines from Wilde's "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime":

Actors are so fortunate. They can choose whether they will appear in tragedy or in comedy, whether they will suffer or make merry, laugh or shed tears. But in real life it is different. Most men and women are forced to perform parts for which they have no qualifications. Our Guildensterns play Hamlet for us and our Hamlets have to jest like Prince Hal. The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast

Or something like that... I'll have to go buy Oscar's short stories but if nothing else I know the last line is accurate, both in text and in life's context. One of the issues with which I am wrestling is trying to discover what part I am to perform and how to become "qualified". All around me I see at least as much truth in Oscar's writing on the subject as I do Master Shakespeare's, probably more. People are trying to play parts for which they are not qualified. People simply do things because they think it is that befitting their "status" (especially, I find, as one moves beyond what is often ridiculed as "middle class"). I hate snobbery. I hate pretentious people. Luckily last night I really encountered it only once (personally, I think it a wonderful testament to both Harvard and to the high school football player that he applied and was accepted and I was not "astonished" that they took him as the person relaying the story to me was).

So now what role am I to play? Last night was devoted to Shakespeare but I was thinking Wilde. Maybe that is my role. After all, Oscar did take earn a double first at Oxford and was able to move within the stuffy realm of the elite of society while simply being himself, observing, commenting, injecting truth at times into a people who seemed to avoid it. It's a difficult role but perhaps it is one I'll try out for in life, or to quote my other current obsession Wicked:


Something has changed within me
Something is not the same
I'm through with playing by
The rules of someone else's game
Too late for second-guessing
Too late to go back to sleep
It's time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes
And leap...

It's time to try defying gravity
I think I'll try defying gravity
And you can't pull me down

...

I'm through accepting limits
Cuz someone says they're so
Some things I cannot change
But till I try I'll never know
Too long I've been afraid of
Losing love I guess I've lost
Well if that's love
It comes at much too high a cost

I'd sooner buy defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye, I'm defying gravity
And you can't pull me down!


So this morning, in honor of Oscar's light, I took the book of his published letters and walked down to Shades for my Sunday morning breakfast and ordered (appropriately) the Irish oatmeal. Well, I am not quite sure what Oscar would have thought about the oatmeal but I know he would appreciate the group of shirtless young male joggers that all too quickly passed by...

No joggers here, but this was my view for most of breakfast: