Shakespeare's Birthday!

According to a fantastic website I looked at, this is a copy of Shakespeare's signature. I have seen it, or something like it, before, and I'm sure it's one of many he used in his lifetime as his name and signature seemed to change over time. As I gaze upon the letters, I find that this signature is simple, straightforward, a way for a man to mark his identity. Proof that he is who he says he is. But I am in awe when I realize that the man who perhaps scrawled this quickly on a piece of parchment is the same one who sat one day and began to put down his thoughts on the human condition.

I have no qualms about the authorship question. There is no controversy for me. Shakespeare was a genius and probably the most celebrated genius of all time, with some notable exceptions, but since it's his birthday, I'm giving him the top spot. Shakespeare knew about everything and had an innate understanding about most everything. He knew what it felt like to love someone and to lose someone. He understood the human emotions of lust, greed, anger, envy, and he wrote about what could happen if these emotions ruled the heart. He understood his society's conventions and how they trapped some people and motivated others. When he yearned for a different type of life, he created one for himself and knew that in his lifetime, a man would be able to "fashion" himself a new identity and that the class system was changing.

He also knew about what others in society thought. He knew the distrust of anyone from the continent and used those prejudices to inform his work. He knew that women had a role to play in furthering society, but he was too smart to keep them confined to stereotypes. He understood a woman's power, and his greatest works reflect an equality and a balance that is so refreshing. Why did Antony and Cleopatra and Hamlet and Ophelia and countless others not survive as lovers where Benedick and Beatrice did? The answer is that the latter couple gave of their whole hearts, putting aside pride and power for love. It was a gamble, a huge risk, but Shakespeare knew that the best answers and the best solutions always lie with the truth.

For these reasons and many more, I celebrate the man today who makes reading worthwhile and who has been the inspiration for millions of writers, poets and students of humanity. Thank you, sir, for loving language and creating feasts of words for us. We draw up to the banquet these hundreds of years later and are amazed still by your offerings. Happy Birthday to the Bard.