I’m spending the day at a middle school. I have seen dozens of trials, dozens of cries of injustice, dozens of struggles with fairness. While I think all ages grapple with fairness and justice, middle schoolers stand at the crux of it. They seem to spend their days learning how to deal justly with each other, if only by dealing unjustly with each other so often.

Visitations seem to always be from deities. I wonder if one could charge for them.
See the Virgin Mary for $20.
Get a free visitation with this coupon!
Visitation from Ganesh 20% off.
Gaia will appear to you for a limited time only.

In my youth, it was hard for me to work out my own inclinations.
I was inclined to follow the inclinations of others. In matters of not much significance, I could reliably just go along with whomever had a strong preference because my preference was stronger for togetherness with them than for pancakes. Sometimes I didn’t have a sense that I might want pancakes.

Or, I could be with someone who wanted a walk in the park and found that I, too, wanted a walk in the park but could never be sure if it was me who wanted the walk in the park or just wanted to go along with the park walks. It was a matter of some confusion for some time. I had to learn how to go inside myself to see what my won inclinings might be. I trained myself to understand that I might have a desire of my own, separate from someone else.

I admire Hamlet’s directness here. If I had suspicions about my friends’ motivations, I don’t think I’d confront them. I think I’d try and work it out round and about, try and get some time to explore what I knew. Hamlet does a little of this but he just comes out and asks them what the heck is going on. If he were Polonius, he’d send someone to follow them. If he were Gertrude, he’d cozy up to them. If he were Claudius, he’d have them killed (Oh wait! He does that later.) If he were Ophelia, he’d just accept his crappy fate. And if he were the Player, he’d act this thing out.

How much is a pin? Is it a half penny?
Is the price of a life the same as the price of a thought or a thanks?
It seems like here Hamlet is saying his thanks, while only worth a half penny, are still too expensive.

I had thought about how much wrestling with worth Hamlet does in his conversations with others. Sure, sure he wonders whether to be or not to be but there he’s not pricing his life and aspects of his life.
It’s fascinating how questions of worth are so often about actual financial worth. I have my worth search spectacles on now. Where else will I find questions of value and worth in the play as it goes on?

While walking along the Downtown mall with my father a few weeks ago, we ran into my pre-school teacher. He and his wife (also my teacher then) were actors who taught pre-school on the side. Or perhaps they were pre-school teachers who were actors on the side. I don’t know which side was which for them. I loved those two teachers. I don’t remember any of the other teachers I must have had there.

I think it was in their care that I fell in love with theatre. I remember some serious playing of Billy Goats Gruff and the creation of a Janus pin, which while not technically a theatrical symbol, I saw it that way.

Is it their fault then that I live in poverty? Can I blame them for the way my heart breaks every day or for the frustrations of not being able to make work the way I want to? Can I lay my dissatisfactions and hungers and despairs at their feet? I suppose I could. But if I give them that responsibility, I would also have to thank them for the transcendent moments, for the burst of inspiration, for the aspirations and the insights. I could blame you. . . .

A prince can call himself a beggar and we all know that it’s a metaphor. It’s an obvious antithesis for him.

If I were to say this, it would be a little muddier. You might notice the hole in my sock and my hand-me-down clothes and wonder if I might really be a beggar. I feel like one sometimes for sure. Especially, when I’m fundraising for a show.

Because of all that fundraising, I do a lot of thanking. Sometimes I feel rich in thanks in that I have so many good people to give those thanks to. But given how it can feel like our gratitude is never adequate, we probably all feel poor in thanks at one time or another, prince or actual beggar.

I don’t know what to make of the beaten way of friendship. It feels like Hamlet is appealing to the shared history he has with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, appealing to their previously established bonds of friendship.

I think of a path between houses in a wood. At first the path between the two friend’s homes requires a bit of bushwacking but over time, with all the coming and going, the visiting and such, the path gets clearer, wider, the dirt beaten down until it is almost paved. I might call it a well-trodden path of affection between people. As such, the beaten way is a quite lovely idea – but it does feature the word BEATEN, which calls to mind more violent associations. Is it possible that Hamlet means to both threaten and appeal to their shared history?

In any case, he does need to work out what they’re doing there.

Elsinore Economics: Who’s taking care of the books?

Servants to Hamlet are either a) very bad at their jobs or b) fewer than he’d like or is used to.

Let’s assume this dreadful attendance has happened in recent months. Has Claudius rearranged the budgets to have a sumptuous wedding or prepare for war and not only deprived Hamlet of his title but his servants as well? I mean, both wars and weddings are expensive and the money must come from somewhere. Or is Polonius in charge of the ledgers? If so, Hamlet has a lot more reason to be annoyed and frustrated by him. It explains his taunting of someone who might otherwise be sympathetic. Might. Depending on the production.
What does dreadful attendance look like to the Prince of Denmark? How populated was the Danish court? Does he have someone to dress, to wash him, to carry his stuff? How many people is a paucity for a prince?

It is the “rest of’ that I am confused by here. Are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern servants? Or are they friends? It’s not usual for one’s servants to be one’s friends. One can be friendly with servants and servile with friends but the two roles rarely mix. I guess I’m wondering if Hamlet is somehow digging at his two friends here and suggesting both that they are servants and that they are better than the servants Hamlet has. I suppose, as a Prince, everyone could be seen as servants – if servants might stand in for subjects. But still, he’s grouping Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with the rest of his servants, labeling them as the best of a group. It’s very curious. Maybe it’s a deliberate slight so that he can see Rosencrantz and Guildenstern exchange looks again?