Recuperation

Ah...

I have returned to my beloved Idaho. Here, I will be surrounded by my best friends, I will be spoiled and loved by my darling parents, and I will be mocked and hugged by my beloved brother. Can life get any better? If it can, don't tell me how.

And now, all I have to do is knock myself out of school mode. I still wake up wondering what I should study first, what's due in class tonight, etc. I've decided that reading for pleasure is the best way to purge those academic tendancies from my system, so I've settled down with some Shakespeare plays that I have neglected to read thoroughly over the years. Today's play: The Tempest, which wrung tears from me at the end. Can you imagine Will Shakespeare himself, giving the last performance of his career as Prospero, after a life filled with blooming genius and the development of the written human character? He stood center stage, all actors melting away behind him, and asked a final mercy of the masses he devoted his talents to:

Now my charms are all o'erthrown,
And what strength I have's mine own, -
Which is most faint: now, 'tis true,
I must be here confined by you,
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got,
And pardon'd the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell;
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands:
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please: now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant;
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer,
Which pierces so, that it assaults
Mercy itself, and frees all faults.
As you from crimes would pardon'd be,
Let your indulgence set me free.

And the crowd went wild. And I, too, go wild.