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
and by opposing end them?
To die to sleep no more,
and by a sleep to say we end...
That's all I can remember from Hamlet's famous soliloquy, a soliloquy I had to memorize my freshman year of high school for drama class. Why do I still remember even that much? Well besides being famous, I remember it because I remember it. Let me explain.
I remember memorizing it on my walk home from high school, it was an hour walk and at about the halfway point there was a pupuseria that I used to have on speed dial so I could call them ahead of time and order [dos mixtas y un jarritos de tamarindo] and have my food ready by the time I reached there. I was also thinking about the food back then when I was memorizing.
I remember I had the first... stanza? memorized by the time I got to the self-service car wash that never gave you enough time to wash anything more than a hatchback. By the time I was ready to eat my pupusas I had it all memorized and I spent the rest of the walk home rehearsing it.
As it turns out, I was the only one who memorized the damn thing because as the teacher went down the roll call [in alphabetical order] only a few students could get as far as "the question". Tired of this the teacher asked, "who actually memorized the thing?" My hand shot up enthusiastically.
I know, I know, but I was young and impressionable. What did you want me to do? I looked around to see that my hand was up alone, like that annoying hair I miss when I shave sometimes.
I took what seemed like a mile walk from my seat to the stage [didn't help that I liked sitting in the back] and as I got up to the stage one of my friends screamed "eses mijo!" My voice shook, but I cleared my throat and recited the whole thing, probably badly.
After that I would randomly tell people that I still remembered the soliloquy I had to memorize freshman year in high school, and would start reciting it but I always stopped before I finished because... reciting Shakespeare doesn't exactly make you the life of the party. But every once in a while I still try it out and see how much I remember. So you see, I remember because I remember.
I can't recall much more than what I typed at the beginning, and at this point I don't even remember what the answer to his question was. However, what does make me scratch my chin is that Hamlet decided to ask himself these questions.
I don't feel that questions get the respect they deserve. Everyone is usually only interested in the answers, myself included. But if you belief that for life the journey is way better than the destination; shouldn't you also believe that questions are better than answers? That is to say journey:questions::destination:answers. Sorry for that, I just wanted to use an analogy.
The point I'm failing to make is that we shouldn't be afraid of questions we can't answer, and we should start paying more attention to the questions we do ask because they can help us learn a lot more than the answers might. For example, if you get home from a long day of work and ask yourself "what's the weather like in Tahiti right now?" shouldn't you be paying more attention to why you would even ask such a thing, rather than the fact that
Oh, and I have no idea who I'm talking to.
