And This Gives Life

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I have been away from WordPress blogging and commenting lately, more so than usual, only briefly scanning blogs I follow, but not always or infrequently commenting. As the popular slogan goes these last several months, “unprecedented times,” the unprecedented part is profoundly and painfully true thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. The times part is so true as well, as there seems to be little of it for personal hobbies, pleasures, and R&R down-time, e.g. blogging, commenting, or simply finding 1-hour of quiet-time. I am also quite annoyed with WordPress seemingly introducing every year a “newer better version” of the Editor. As if I am free to learn new software programming features like I work full-time for WordPress, this constant frequent changes or complete overhauls rub me a bloody chapped ass! I’ve loosed a fury of expletives at my computer screen so much the last 2-weeks my neighbors are ready to dial the police.

Despite these “unprecedented times” and WordPress incessantly changing their Editors to draft/write new blogs, I jump on here to quickly share a short, romantically moving, classic and soothing Shakespeare Sonnet. I hope it touches you as much as it does me. There is no other modern, renown, multiple Oscar-nominated actor that can recite Shakespeare any better than the late Peter O’Toole. None in my opinion.

Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day?

I recommend listening to the YouTube clip of O’Toole’s heart-rending oral rendition of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 with your eyes closed. This allows one to imagine every vowel, every eloquent word and rhythm O’Toole seems to effortlessly capture and float upon your ears like a warm whisper.

If you would prefer to read this exquisite Sonnet, I give you the fourteen lines here:

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

For all of you, do not forget what makes us uniquely beautifully and brilliantly human with each other.

—-

Live Well — Love Much — Laugh Often — Learn Always

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27 thoughts on “And This Gives Life”

    • Mmm, thank you Nan so much. I must admit that in our current social, political, and economic climate in the country, it is so VERY warming, refreshing, and truly touching to a heart’s deepest corners… to be told with sincerity as you’ve made, that one is indeed missed, is valued, and appreciated.

      Thank you Nan for this. I want you to know how much I appreciate, admire, and respect YOUR wonderful humanity. It’s an honor to call you a Friend even though it is only a cyber friendship—at this point in time. 😉 ❤️

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  2. Glad to see you posting again. After the last post, I’d been a little concerned. But given the circumstances it’s understandable if you don’t have much time or energy for the blogosphere. Don’t worry — it will still be here when you feel ready for it.

    All our emotions are shared with many of the beasts, but sonnets and the ability to appreciate them are indeed uniquely human.

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    • Thank you very much Infidel. I am hanging in there and fighting to stay mentally sane (in this poorly educated Red state), emotionally strong, humble, stoic, and more importantly compassionate in these hard times, physically safe and healthy, and economically afloat with an ever diminishing “safety net” as you and I discussed before. 😞

      But when it seems particularly tough Infidel—and I’ve mentioned this before, but it deserves repeating repeatedly 😉 —I try to remember my Mom’s and Dad’s generation (as children) as well as my grandparents who all lived during those much harder times in and from the Great Depression followed by a World War (Two) both of which covered 14-15 years! Remembering that and what it must have been like… FOR THAT LONG… quickly sobers me up and tells me Hey… get yo shit together! You people have only gone 7-MONTHS! You soft-asses have at least 161 months to go Panzy! 😄

      And then things really don’t seem so bad. Lol

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            • By “Highest Level” you mean their Business Plan, right? Which is ONLY at their low, LOW super duper price 💰💰💰 of just $214.27!!! 🤨😠

              Let me just throw down $214 so I can simply “justify” my paragraphs, to look clean and straight! Yep, I own orchards and orchards of Sequoia Money-trees that rain down so many Benjamins on my lawns… I can’t find enough holes, closets, vaults, or suitcases to stack ’em in!!! 🤪

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            • 214 $ would be great, here in Germany they take much more. I have only done this in order to sleep good, even if some Russian idiots should hack my website again and create great chaos by deleting my archive, no problem, all can now be restored very quickly again. In general I do not like the growing commercialization of WordPress (happened alike in eBay).

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            • In general I do not like the growing commercialization of WordPress (happened alike in eBay).

              Oooo! Now we are fully aligned together Ulli! 😁 I too have become increasingly annoyed with hyper-Capitalization gone hog wild bonkers here in the U.S. Hell, there once was a time here where all (analog) TV was totally free! There once was a time when electricity was dirt cheap—but modern electronics has ruined that public domain. There once was a time when AIR, yes the oxygen we breathe was completely free! Nope, not anymore. 😡

              Ever bought those large bags of chips and when you get home, open it up, and a blast of air hits your face… you look inside the bag and it is less than HALF FULL?

              Right there, you just paid for air/oxygen and a lot less of chips! Ever bought a big box with a bottle or tube hidden inside? And when you open it up, the content/volume of what you bought is only a THIRD of the size of the box? 🤦‍♂️ That’s hyper-capitalism gone hog wild bonkers Ulli. Lol

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            • The bloody neo-liberalism since the 1990s made living more complicated and also quite expensive here in Europe but actually other problems are more important like COVID19 and all those ignorant idiots denying the deadly reality of pandemic here in the EU like right-extremists, populists, conspiracy freaks and many other stubborn persons. Simply unbelievable! And yesterday evening this rotten and corrupt theatre (very bad but dangerous drama) with 2 too old actors live on US television means really a new low-point, but will it still go deeper? Let’s hope not!

              Liked by 1 person

            • Prof:

              Hey~! Please stay your side of the bed … sarcasm is MY territory! (Ya gotta be a lot more subtler than that, I tells ya!)

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    • I’m doing my best Shell. 😁 Most of it is mental given these “unprecedented times” and the severe lack of rational intelligence among our general populous here in Texas regarding this invisible deadly virus. Perhaps now that our President has fallen victim to (COVID-19) his own ignorance and arrogance, the Red Texans who’ve been in denial since Jan. 2020, will take this pandemic a lot more serious and less so their wealth. We hope don’t we? 🙄

      If not, maybe they can talk to the 210,000+ dead Americans from COVID, huh? Would that convince them? 🤦‍♂️

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      • You can lead a fricking dumbass to the facts, but you can’t make them think. So those lacking some sense of rational intelligence today will still be lacking it tomorrow I fear. We are surrounded by dumbasses, and they can vote.

        Best we can do, those of us with some aptitude for rational thought, is do our best to take care of our own and hope this blows over at some point. So, take care of yourself and do your damndest to stay away from the dingbats.

        We have a LOT of them in this red state of Tn. too.

        Decent internet, Netflix and Amazon Prime, are keeping us sane for a little while. I also find refuge in making music and going diving when I can. Just find the thing that makes the Prof. happy and keep doing that 😉

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  6. Hello Professor! I’ve been absent from WordPress myself for some months now; though for some reason I took to it today. I think of you when I hear the latest Covid news from Texas. I said to a few people back around Easter that I suspected your President’s casual approach would eventually kill tens of thousands of American citizens. Sadly, that’s proven true. Accusations of that kind are and have been levelled at our PM here, where the death count is around a quarter of the the U.S.’s though roughly equivalent adjusted for population counts. Seems as if both leaders have taken a wee dose of karma. One suspects there may be more to come . . .

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    • Hariod! So great to see you again Sir! I hope you’ve been well. I do catch you every so often commenting over on Esme’s blog—I enjoy reading your exchanges with the Madame. 🙂

      I said to a few people back around Easter that I suspected your President’s casual approach would eventually kill tens of thousands of American citizens. Sadly, that’s proven true.

      So true H. I am utterly baffled as to how (semi-intelligent?) Americans—particularly tRump’s demographic of supporters/voters—have EVER thought that our orange orangutan in the White House cares the least bit about ALL Americans’ well-being, not just the super wealthy and Mob-styled personality men! In fact, if white Americans who “love” Donnie would honestly examine/scrutinize tRump’s entire work or domestic history… they’d see glaringly that the man has ZERO microscopic particles of compassion and empathy for ALL Americans (even KIA’s in the military), but only those who mimic his Mob-style complete, to-the-death loyalty! That entire dossier of tRump background up to today consistently shows:

      He could care LESS about 210,000+ dead Americans from COVID-19, and still rising!

      These are indeed the darkest times Hariod for this country and that Office on Pennsylvania Ave. And I haven’t even mentioned our severe social-legal problems with police brutality, otherwise disguised as “law and order.” 😣 HAH!!! What an in-your-face joke that slogan is… law & order! 🤦‍♂️

      Anyway fine Sir, do not be a total stranger here. Is that clear!? 😉

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  7. Okaaaayyy … I’ll see your Shakespeare, and raise you one more …

    —which right now happens to suit my mood. Brrrrr~!

    As for Word Press, I am indeed grateful for the freebies but why keep complicating what was so simple with simplifications that are too complex for this old dog? (That’s a way of saying I agree completely!)

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