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All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
As You Like It
by William Shakespeare
Shakespeare's play was wrtitten about 1600, when he was a middle-aged man. He left home at an early age to follow his heart
to the London stage. The life of the ordinary man or woman, he wrote, proceeds through set stages, and the lines above are
an introduction to his observations of the life cycle as they appear in the famous speech known as The Seven Ages of Man.
This appeals to us and our friends
who write and will write on these pages about reaching the stage where we can look back and evaluate our own lives. We believe
we still have much to say, although we have hardly reached the last stage, or age, as described by Shakespeare.
We
hope you enjoy reading these pages, and we are interested in any of your comments. We do not keep a list of e-mail addresses
or use them in any way, shape, or form. When you sign our "guestbook," you may leave as much or as little information
you choose beyond your comments, which interest us most.
For your further enjoyment, here are the remaining lines of
the Seven Ages of Man:
At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace,
with a woeful ballad,
Made to his mistress's eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like
a pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel.
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's
mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good clean capon lined.
With eyes severe and beard of formal
cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and
slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved,a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his
sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
My new novel
SOULS ALIVE is ready for distribution. I was drawn to write the novel after thinking about whether
deep, abiding love requires us to go the "extra mile" with the loved one, even if it takes us to the brink of Hell--literally.
SOULS ALIVE is available at most booksellers' Web sites and can be ordered through
any bookstore. Or order directly from the publisher at www.booklocker.com. Check out the literary fiction category, paperbacks, and find the title. You may also read a free excerpt!
P.S. Check out further comments about Souls Alive (menu on upper
left of this page) where I have also added Chapter 5, which includes the great seduction.
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