With Sincerest apologies to the Bard. (A modern retelling of Jaques monologue from "As You Like it")
All the world's a stage,
and all the myriad nations merely players.
They have their entrances and their exits,
And each Nation in time plays many parts.
(The Rest of the monologue on the flip.)
Its acts being seven ages, at first the Hero,
Fighting and struggling to find its feet and soul.
And then the eager Learner. With earnest
and gracious respect For those that might crush
the spark of freedom. And then the Trader,
welcome to all that bring the shining coin
Regardless of the source. Then a conq'rer
Full of excuse, and costumed as a clown,
Sudden to attack, Merciless its vengeance
seeking the fear of others,
marching its best to their doom. And then the Wizened
All smug patricians, secure from all fear
with moral guidance for all those beneath
so it has always been. The sixth age shifts
into the slow and paranoid decay
spies among the people, jails full to burst
the earnest ideals beloved in its youth
forsworn for methods of those it replaced
soldiers walk the streets, seeking imagin'd foes
created if not found. Last stage of all,
that ends this sad, but well forseen journey,
is the mad grasping at what crumbs remain,
Sans Law, Sans Hope, Sans everything.
Fri Aug 02, 2013 at 10:54 PM PT: It's getting a little late, and I need to sleep. Promise to respond to all comments in about seven or eight hours.
1:13 PM PT: Thanks for the CS list, BTW.
I am always pleased to be here, and thankful to the folks who find my work worth reading.