Hamlet - Great Words to Live By

Some 40 years ago the English curriculum in grade 12 included William Shakespeare`s Hamlet.  Somehow it seems a shame that most of us didn`t really get all the philosophy of the play until many years later.  Recently I was reading a book on finding one`s inner self and the chapter began with Polonius famous words to his son Laertes.

This above all; to thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.

Perhaps when reading it in the context of soul searching the quote seems to take on more meaning or perhaps I have forgotten the impact on hearing the words for the first time.  In any event I found the quote more powerful than the rest of the chapter.  I kept going back to it and savouring the deeper meaning, almost nodding in agreement as I re-read the words. 

In the lengthening of our years it seems that many of us are searching for more meaning in our lives and part of that search is inward rather than outward.  We begin to ask “ìs this all there is”?  Then we search out answers in various ways one of them being, perhaps, meditation.  The next thing we discover is that we don’t know that much about ourselves.  Have we always been true to ourselves as we work our jobs?  Have we been true to ourselves as we raise our children?  How judgmental have we been with our parents and has it been fair?  What is our passion?  Do we even know?  Have we lost sight of what we loved because we have toiled for 40 years?  Is there still time to grab the brass ring?  Do we want to?  What do we want?

       So I am asking the question, have you been true to thine own self?