Him I Could Love Till I Die....

The best thing to reach for in the mist of a crisis is a beloved story.  I've been open about how the Corona virus has effected me as I reflect on my race getting cancelled and hearing about various book events getting cancelled as they have impacted my perspectives on what I am reading.   However as reading remains the center of my life I must admit that it is also feeling a book in my hand is a stress reliever. I have been open about how reading is a stress reliever for me and that it can be a powerful tool to help me cope with my anxiety previously on my blog.  

Reaching for an old favorite story can really calm down my troubled soul. In the mist of hearing about events getting canceled and feeling isolated from friends and family during this time a beloved story that I already know so well has a soothing effect. For some reason what I was really craving was Shakespeare's A Midsummer Nights Dream. I performed in several productions of that play in small roles in my youth and it is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. There was something about picking up a paperback copy of my favorite Shakespeare play that provided me a centering point in a way nothing else could. 

My husband asked why I wanted to purchase the paperback copy of it for less than a dollar at a used bookstore when I could easily read it online for free. But there are good reasons for this. As I continue to work in a call center at a major bank my computer at work is monitored for everything but no one monitors the paperback that I read between calls. As I head to bed a paperback book feels more cuddly than an electronic device and I caught myself snuggling with my copy of the play as I started to fall asleep. I enjoy many of the benefits of electronic books but for this one I just needed to have in paperback. It somehow makes me feel closer to this magical world.

Reading a magical story with fairies, star crossed lovers and goofy rustics is purely escapist.  As a feminist I do not romanticize historical times much but for today there is something about being transported into the woods into a time that is before my own when I need a break from the mayhem that is going on around me. Today I am just going to escape into the world and will not bring a critical eye to the problematic gender roles in this story. (And trust me, that could be quite the essay in itself)  But the exquisite poetry of Shakespeare makes it difficult to have my critic's hat on.  Yes, it takes just a little more concentration to lose myself into the Elizabethan English but I already can recite parts of the play and Shakespeare's poetry is completely worth the extra concentration. My mind gets lost into the woods of Athens as I immerse myself in this story. 

The other comforting element to rereading this is the memories of encountering this story in my youth and in discovering Shakespeare for the first time. In Meredith Wilson's Music Man one of the characters sings, "What makes Shakespeare and Beethoven great..him I could love till I die." This is so true...I do not think I will ever lose the enthusiasm that I found for Shakespeare in my youth and today my weary soul finds hope as I grasp onto Shakespeare's poetry. And for today when I read the ending phrase, "Give me your hands, if we be friends, and Robin shall restore amends," it seems like poetry restores my spirit to meet the world. So I decide to carry another paperback of his sonnets with me everywhere so that I have a tiny glimmer of beauty no matter where I go.