Semper Fidelis Tyrannosaurus

Always Faithful Terrible Lizard

Some other Latin phrases:

• Quid pro quo
• Ego te absolvo
• Bona fide
• Reducto ad infinitum

I don't know why, but I've had Latin phrases going around in my head. I never studied it, and, even though Catholic, I've never been to a Latin Mass. The closest thing to this antiquarian language that I've ever come close to would have been anything written by Shakespeare. And they were many, many centuries apart.

I've been watching a few things on Shakespeare and his works. I'm somewhat glad I had the opportunity to read a few plays when I was in school, but on the whole, I don't think I've truly appreciated them until I became much older. 

The big ones, Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream were always more popular to me. Lately I've been trying to understand some of the historical plays that were written; Richard II, Henry IV pt1 and 2, Richard III.

You hear the famous lines and phrases while growing up, but once heard in context within the confines of the story, and pronounced as they should be instead of mindlessly mimicked, the words blend together; a whole picture is created. 

To hear Hamlet's soliloquy in act 3, scene 1 just be boiled down into 

To be, or not to be...

diminishes the entirety and the importance of the speech being made. Here it is again, but more rounded.

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
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd.

This now becomes more than a question about suicide, but about life in general. Life is painful, but we continue - we endure. The logical thing would be to end the pain. But at what cost?

To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub

Continued along we see the rise of a new line of questioning. What comes after death? Is it really worth it?

Being able to answer and understand the big questions are what life's about. It's never a straightforward answer.