Hand-Lettered Art By Harriet Faith - Week 31 Of Year Long Hand Lettering Project - Quote From Hamlet by Wm. Shakespeare
Hello and happy Autumn!
If you are new to this blog, welcome!
This is week 31 of a year-long, hand-lettered project that I started called "Pay Attention To Your Dreams." (In case anyone was paying incredibly close attention, I called last week Week 29, but it was really Week 30's image)
Okay, now onto this quote. This line is spoken by Lady Ophelia in Hamlet. For the sake of full disclosure, I must reveal to you that although I love Shakespeare's brilliance with language, I have, in fact, read very little of his works. Ha ha ha. True.
That said, let's look at the quote. It is considered self-explanatory. It expresses an observation that we don't know what the future brings. Some say it refers to not knowing what awaits us beyond death! Even without reading the context of her line, I know the basic story and I feel the fear in Ophelia's voice!
But I would like to add my own little spin! I see it this way:Take the first part, "We know what we are." Well, I say that we don't just know what we are, we are PRET-ty dang sure of it. Too dang sure of it, sometimes. Psychologically, this is what gives us consistency of experience, without which we may become too disoriented. In the psychological aspect of our being, we need to know that who we think we are today is essentially similar to who we were yesterday and who we will be tomorrow.
This is valid and useful... to a point. The thing is, we can become so sure that life is only what we see right in front of us, that we might find it hard to imagine more of what we would like it to be. We can fall into believing that we are just this little person doing just these little things through just our little day. But, really... don't we tend to sell ourselves short?
Do we, maybe, not realize enough of the time, that we are agents of good for each other and it is often the very little, simple things that make a difference for others around us. Do you give yourself enough credit for that? Do you? Which brings us to the 2nd part of the quote..."We know not what we may be."
This sounds like a reminder to me... that we have way more potential than we realize. No matter what might be going on, this quote can be a reminder that we might want to stay open to the future being AWESOME... We don't know WHAT we may be in the end and it could be way better than what we are telling ourselves.
Have a beautiful week!
Harriet
