Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Tuesday Quote of the Day by Willy Shakes

"Parting is such sweet sorrow" as told (well, written ... well, allegedly written) by William Shakespeare.

I'm at home now, and I left my Quickwrite paper at work. However, I do remember the gist of what I wrote. Basically, it was about how my beloved stepdad died of lung cancer several years ago. It was an awful way to go, lingering and weakening and in agonizing pain all the time, and ... Well, the last week or so of his life, when he couldn't really walk or do anything but cry and basically wish to be dead, I actually thought of this quote a lot. The idea of losing my stepdad--more a father to me than my biological father is--was devestating ... almost as bad as watching him suffering horrifically and dying a little bit every hour. Knowing that he left, hopefully for a better place, that his pain and torture was over ... yet missing him beyond words every single day since? Yeah, sweet sorrow indeed.

More pragmatically, though, I wrote about the oxymoronic nature of "sweet sorrow" and how parting, saying goodbye, is definitely an apt example of that phrase. If you are saying goodbye to someone that you love, even if it's only for a short time, it's sorrowful. Even if you're saying goodbye under bad terms, there's usually at least the last whiff of something that was "sweet" at some point.

Most of my students got it as well, which made me feel pretty excited as we're going to be tackling Romeo and Juliet in a few days. I did feel like a jerk, though, when I realized that the quote I chose could easily be interpreted as playing to the recent tragedy mentioned in the last blog. That was not my intention, although it was neat in a way since a lot of the kids chose to interpret the quote in terms of that event.

Catharsis comes in strange forms sometimes, and I don't think the quote could have been better timed. Life is strange.

3 comments:

  1. I taught Romeo and Juliet to my high school freshmen all those years ago. I had six sections and nearly had the thing memorized by last hour.

    To me, that's the epitome of Shakespeare's genius. His ability to say so much with a simple phrase, a phrase that resonates with anyone.

    I'm sorry about your stepfather, it's awful to see the ones we love hurt-- it's just as bad to let them go.

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  2. Yes, I've tried to "introduce" Romeo and Juliet unbeknownst to my little angels through little quotes like this and discussions about the basic themes (without mentioning the bard or the play in question). They have no idea what's coming : ), but I think they're prepared, in a way. I'm pretty sure they're going to love it once they get used to the language and the drama set up.

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  3. I'm not an English major, having come to this writing gig later on in life. So I'm not that well read on Shakespeare. But I would agree that he definitely could say alot with a little. I also have to applaud you as a teacher. I have thought at certain times that I could maybe teach at the college level (assuming I knew enough about any subject to teach it, heh heh), but I doubt I could deal with kids at any earlier age. My problem with the whole deal is having to "parent" everyone else's kids, since not too many kids live up to my expectations of behavior. Mine thankfully, are great examples for everyone else to follow (doesn't every parent say that?) Anyway, I am sorry about your stepfather. My wife is in the same boat, having a stepfather she is close to rather than her biological one. Sometimes he's a pain in the butt, but I know it will be hard for her when his time comes.

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