Content starts here
CLOSE ×

Search

AARP AARP States Oregon

#Disrupt Shakespeare? - The Thin Edge of Dignity

wshakesp


By Dick Weinman, AARP Volunteer and Assisted Living Guru

Shakespeare said it – as he always has:

All the world’s a stage

                        And all the men and women,

                        Merely players.

The words, put in the mouth of the melancholy philosopher, Jacques, in As You Like It, continue:
And every man – and woman – plays many parts.

Shakespeare then proceeds to organize these parts into several inter-related generational segments. Thus this famous soliloquy is known as “The Seven Ages of Man.” Some five hundred years later, the correct titular phrase should be “The Seven Ages of Man and Woman.”

To begin at the beginning, Man – Woman - is mewling and puking in his – her – nurse’s arms. Not a compelling Act I.

The second act is also nasty. The androgynous human becomes a whining school boy – girl – with shining morning face. This kid – we humans– creeps like a snail, unwillingly to school. In Elizabethan times, s/he wore a satchel on his – her – back. Today, we’d call it a Star Wars backpack.

Then the play receives an R rating. Acts III and IV are the Elizabethan version of “The Game of Thrones.” Sex in Act III - The lover, who sighs like furnace to his mistress. Violence in Act IV - The soldier, bearded like the pard. He – the military had not yet become gender neutral – swears strange oaths – four letter words? – and is jealous in honor and quick to quarrel (good thing the Elizabethans didn’t have AK 47s.)

If the soldier wasn’t KIA, he – sorry about Act V ladies, it’s the judicial brotherhood – he would age up to become a justice, in fair round belly, with good capon lined.

If our hero – and heroine – make it into Act VI, s/he becomes a lean and slippered pantaloon, and wears spectacles on his/her nose, his/her bones encased in a shrunk shank. Alas, his big manly voice, turns to a childish treble, and pipes and whistles in his throat

Sorrowfully, at this stage, a slow metamorphosis occurs: second childishness – think Depends – and mere oblivion. Shakespeare leaves humanity sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Now, wait a minute! I’m in the final act – 83years old. My voice is full and resonant I can project it to a theatre audience. I throw it strongly from my diaphragm. It’s not a measly throat piping. True I wear glasses – so does my 13 year old grand child. Sorry to say I wear Depends, though, but I also lift weights, hike a treadmill, press my triceps, pedal a stationary bike, speed through step-ups .. . . and I’m disabled and in a wheelchair, to boot.

While the cycle of life may be poetic and metaphorical and end as it began, Shakespeare was wise in Hamlet enough to realize that Man – or Woman – could endure the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them.

So there!

We may not be able to prevent aging. But we can disrupt it. To listen to Benedict Cumberbatch read the "All the World's a Stage soliloquy, click here.

You can explore #DisruptAging here.
 

About AARP Oregon
Contact information and more from your state office. Learn what we are doing to champion social change and help you live your best life.