248 Hand washing soliloquies

Hand washing soliloquies

These are tragic times for so many--the sick, the families of the dead, the unemployed, medical personnel and first responders. It is hard to comprehend the enormity of our losses.

But there are also so many absurdities in this situation: long conversations about strategies for locating toilet paper, watching a 1950s movie and worrying that the characters are not maintaining local distance, and to mask or not to mask!

Then there is handwashing. I have always been a frequent hand-washer but confess that the process was often slapdash. But singing Happy Birthday rapidly became inane. 

I saw on Facebook that Hamlet's soliloquy was 20 seconds long--a perfect substitution! I had memorized it years ago. A little refreshing and I was good to go-or wash. But how many times a day should one contemplate suicide? I am not ready to make my quietus--bare bodkin or not!

So what other works had I memorized in my youth. How about Macbeth's speech:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

This one fits our situation a little too well. And it is also about death and fortunately too short.

Also fortunate that the memorized sonnet, "On His Blindness," by Milton was also too short.

Did I choose these downers to memorize or were they assigned? I can't remember.

I also memorized Yeat's "Lake Isle of Innisfree":

I remember as a high school student how sad I was to learn that Frost's poem with the woods that were dark and deep was about death. You could interpret Innisfree in the same manner--and it's too short.

Then it occurred to me that I was seeking hope and inspiration from the wrong sources. I went back to favorite Bible verses:

This is now on my bathroom mirror. I like the poetry of the King James Psalms, as you can tell. These three verses are just over 20 seconds.

Stay safe.

Trish