Flowers of Civilisation - a photo on Flickriver

            William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is undoubtedly the greatest writer in the English language. In fact, he's singularly responsible for the creation of more words than anyone else. The critic Harold Bloom goes even further, claiming that Shakespeare was not only the first real psychologist, but the inventor of the modern person ("Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human" 1998).

It was Shakespeare who first inverted the idea that actors on a dramatic stage were reproducing elements of real life. For Shakespeare, life itself, was a stage from which human beings acted their part. 
"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..." (As You Like It)

"Hamlet" is universally regarded as his greatest tragedy. It is more often quoted than any of his other works. Its insight into the melancholic soul was not paralleled in literature until the arrival of Freud and Jung. No wonder so many theories have developed about the man from Stratford-upon-Avon. It is hard to imagine how one person could have so much insight and so much genius. But of course that has always been the way with true genius.

The best known soliloquy from "Hamlet" comes as no surprise. "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..." 

But the part that really makes my hairs stand on end is this section:
"To die, to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to Dream; aye, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil..." 

As a hidden Catholic at a time in Puritan Elizabethan England when it was a most dangerous religion to pursue, Shakespeare knew a thing or two about the concept of life beyond the grave. All human civilisations, until our modern secular empires, have held onto the belief that what we build is for an eternal future in the hearts of people. Our engineering, works of art, the greatest of our cities will all crumble into ruin. At the very least, our own Sun will become a red dwarf and flare out in 5 billion years.

But our treasure lies where neither moth, nor rust can corrupt. The loss of faith in the hearts of human beings is the greatest tragedy to befall the human species, and unless addressed it will prove fatal for what societies we try to build. Take a look at the ancient story of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9).

What dreams may come indeed? What dreams lie in our hearts today? Or have we allowed the cynical acid of unbelief to destroy our once immortal souls?


PHOTO NOTE: This collage is made entirely from 13 separate photographs taken by me. Every flower here pictured has come from our own garden.
   

Taken on: September 10, 2021

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Luminosity7

Nikon D850

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Flowers of Civilisation

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

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