Thanks, Shakespeare, for the many insightful lines, such as the one about Henry IV (Part II, Scene iii) in which he is referred to as the glass in which young men dress themselves. The question the line poses for all of us is this: What is the glass in which we dress ourselves?”
Who is the model we follow? What is the style of life we emulate? How is our behavior imitative?
What’s original in our lives? What’s original in your life?
Find yourself looking into a mirror that is, in fact, someone else? Trying to be a reflection of a reflection? Thinking as another thinks?
Of course, originality is a problem for all of us, what with there being about 100 billion predecessors. Nevertheless, short of being original, all of us can think about that mirror we use “to dress ourselves.”
Try this. Dress that mind and behavior without any cultural mirror for a day. True, you won’t be fashionable in any sense but your own, but you will be “your own mirror.”
And then there’s the potential all of us have for being a glass by which others dress themselves. Nice thought, isn’t it? Others, at least some others, might find in you the model to emulate.
Who is the model we follow? What is the style of life we emulate? How is our behavior imitative?
What’s original in our lives? What’s original in your life?
Find yourself looking into a mirror that is, in fact, someone else? Trying to be a reflection of a reflection? Thinking as another thinks?
Of course, originality is a problem for all of us, what with there being about 100 billion predecessors. Nevertheless, short of being original, all of us can think about that mirror we use “to dress ourselves.”
Try this. Dress that mind and behavior without any cultural mirror for a day. True, you won’t be fashionable in any sense but your own, but you will be “your own mirror.”
And then there’s the potential all of us have for being a glass by which others dress themselves. Nice thought, isn’t it? Others, at least some others, might find in you the model to emulate.
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