All the World's a Stage

I have slightly altered the name of my blog to be "All the World's a Stage" which is directly quoted from William Shakespeare's As You Like It.  I am preparing my new courses for the year.  In drama class we will be quoting and using this famous quote in one of our first class periods.  Although some would argue that Shakespeare's meaning is deterministic, I like to teach the quote from a Biblical worldview.  We are on a stage and just as an actor has an audience, so also a hurting world is watching. 

How will we perform and will we finish well?

Because I love acting and Shakespeare, I enjoy discussing and pondering upon this thought.  As a Christian drama director/teacher it is my desire for students to use the "stage" that God gives them to glorify Him.  This has and will continue to be my mission as I continue to train servant performers

"...that in all things He might have the preeminence." Col. 1:18b

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,

His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.

And then the whining school-boy, 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' eyebrow. Then a soldier,

Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honour, 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 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 slipper'd 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.