Random ahead...

So, Michayla and I saw the last production of our season at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival last night. Measure For Measure. I had forgotten how uncomfortable this play can make me. Perhaps, this is why it is called a problem play!! The Bard throws up a whole bunch of mirrors to humanity with this one and that can be quite painful. I did not enjoy this production as much as I did the rest of this season's offerings. First of all, I missed the outdoor theater. And the very large man sitting next to me in the first act was only part of the reason. Also, I did not feel that this cast had the strength that the other casts had and some of the casting really did not work for me. Also, they set this production in a modern time, but I could not tell you just when that time was and that drove me crazy. I mean, there were zoot suits on some men and regular suits on others and the women all looked to be from the 70's. It was jarring to me. Part of me is sorry that I left my family for the evening to see this particular show.

Hands down, my favorite of this year's offerings was King Lear. Although Our Town took a close second. I had thought that having Lear set in the Wild West would bother me, but after an initial growl, I stopped even noticing. The man who played Lear did so very well. His madness was real but not so flamboyant as to become a caricature. To me, some of the most beautiful words Shakespeare ever wrote come from King Lear. And I would only hesitate for a moment if someone challenged me to make a case for this play being William's greatest work. I am intrigued at the choice to show King Lear and Measure For Measure in the same year, as I think that one of the greatest themes of Lear is that idea of measure for measure...what goes around, comes around. Also, both shows carry the theme of the price that the innocent so often pay due to the actions of those around them who are prideful and selfish. I have to say it...Damn! But that Shakespeare could write!

As I look forward to now taking 15 young people to depth in the works of Shakespeare for the upcoming school year, I feel much weight. I have seen, in the recent past, attempts at teaching Shakespeare to young people that caused them to hate this body of work and literature in general and I so desperately want to have my students come away with a love of these things. Above all else, I want them to come away with a love of words and great wordsmithing. I want them to feel the power that can be inherent in each word that we both speak and write. Let's face it, I am scared spitless. But I will keep preparing and continue to consider each scholar and their particular needs.

Words...words save me every, every day. I have found great sources for words of love, strength and power and those sources keep me afloat. God chooses His tools so carefully and He keeps them as sharp and as clean and as free from rust as those tools will submit themselves to being. I look at myself and all of my rough edges and I so long to be one of His clean, sharp and shiny tools. But for all of that longing, I am also lazy and wussy and I just need so. much. work. At times it is enough to make one want to just stay in bed. But...But...BUT....just when I am about to give in and climb back between the sheets...God sends me words. God uses one of His tools that is in better shape than I to inspire me and cause me to submit, yet again, to His grinding wheel. Ouch, what exquisite pain. May it never end. May He never give up on me. May those "tools" who must continually come to my aid never lose patience or at least never lose the ability to be in tune enough to be there for me. Someday, someday, I will pay it forward.