William Shakespeare

Fear No More the Heat o' the Sun
By William Shakespeare

Guiderius. Feare no more the heate o' th' Sun,
Nor the furious Winter rages,
Thou thy worldly task hast don,
Home are gon,and tane thy wages.
Golden Lads and Girles all must,
As Chimney-Sweepers come to dust.

Arviragus. Feare no more the frowne o' th' Great
Thou art past the tirants stroake,
Care no more to cloath and eate,
To thee the Reede is as the Oake:
The Scepter, Learning, Physicke must,
All follow this and come to dust.

Guiderius. Feare no more the Lightning flash.

Arbiragus. Nor th all-dreaded Thunderd thunderstone

Guiderius. Feare not Slander, Censure rash.

Arbiragus. Thou has finish'd Joy and more.

Both. All Louers youg all Louers must,
Consigne to this and come to dust.

Guiderius. No exorcisor harme thee,

Arberagus. No no witch-craft charme thee.

Guiderius. Ghost vnlaid forbeare thee.

Arberagus. Nothing ill come neere thee.

Both. Quiet consumation haue,
And renowned be the graue.

It is hot, darn hot here in Korea, but it takes William Shakespeare to put it all into perspective. Guiderius was a legendary British king who was slain on the battlefield by the invading Romans. His brother, Arberagus, took over as king during the battle. Guiderius after death did not have to worry about the heat of the sun or anything else.

I remember putting the ashes of my mother into the Pacific Ocean at Crescent City, California and it occurred to me that her biggest concern at the time of her death was her knees and it was her insistence of an operation to correct them that caused her death. Then, as I put her ashes into the receding waves, I thought she did not have to worry about her knees again. It seemed like supreme irony, one that I did not appreciate.

The other day, I went to Home Plus to get out of the heat. Unfortunately, many other people did the same. It was wall to wall people doing the same thing I was. The small restaurants in the store were full. The tables were full of people as they sat there with their families trying so hard to stay cool for the store was decent although just barely.

One of the things you have to say about the sales people in Korea is that are uncommonly kind and friendly even under the most trying of circumstances. There is never a shortage of staff to help the customers which is a very nice feature of Korean life. Unfortunately, few Koreans can speak English, but why should they since this is their country. The point is the store was full of people as we all tried to escape the heat and have the cool drink and enjoy each other or in my case read and write as I tried to stay cool. The sales people tried so hard to understand what I was trying to order even when a friend of mine got short with them when she could not get milk for her coffee. Like me, she did not speak Korean. For some reason, it is very hard to get milk for coffee here. I drink coffee at home for that reason.

Not too many years ago, I used to have a job in the States that involved working for the state of California. I liked the work since it involved helping people but the particular work site was made dysfunctional by an out of control manager. Before the state finally made him retire, he made things very difficult for the employees and for the people who came in for services. The job had a great retirement plan and I was getting up there in years so I was not going to quit. The union was doing all that it could. It took a trip to a nearby cemetery that I took for exercise one day to put it all in perspective as Shakespeare did for me now. I looked at all of the markers with all of the names with dates of births and deaths and I realized that I had no idea what their problems were at the time of their deaths. Being an older cemetery, no one knew since many of them have been dead for over 100 years. What I thought was earth shockingly important really wasn't.

I watched the Rachel Maddow Show the other day as the US troops involved in combat rolled out of Iraq and into Kuwait. Her program is one of the ones I can watch on the Internet. She was sitting in the heat and describing how hot it was and the fact that getting electricity for even a fan was very difficult if not impossible for most people of Iraq. Dr. Maddow was broadcasting from a site that was not the one MSNBC wanted because the one they wanted had rocket attacks there just hours before. She had no make-up and the viewer could tell she was sweating in the heat. This is a country where women have to keep covered up. The heat can go up to 125 degrees F. Then there is the danger of being blown up. Even if one's husband can't get a job, a woman still has to work all of the time and dress in bundles of clothes.

It is true that as hot as it is here in Korea, it is hotter in other places and someday it won't matter at all as it does not matter to Shakespeare whether or not there is global warming in England. He is dust as "Chimney -Sweepers come to dust." I went to church yesterday and the sermon talked about living forever. Well, I am not there now. The poets remind us of where we are now even if they have gone on, their words still live on the page. For now, I will sweat the heat because it is better than being cool in the grave.