The Scottish Play

Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to sight,
Or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat oppressed brain? I see thee yet
In form as palpable as this which now I draw.
Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o' th'other senses
Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood
Which was not so before. There's no such thing
It is the bloody business which informs
thus to mine eyes. From Macbeth Act II, scene i

I cannot promise that this is accurate word for word or line for line. This is from my memory as I was to memorize a speech from the dark and dismal play. I still have more lines to memorize but that is all the speech directly related to the dagger Macbeth thinks he sees. This is a fun speech to speak, as it may be delivered wildly and with lots of hand movements. I intend to memorize the other speech (If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly), too! Also the St. Crispian's speech from Henry V; Shakespeare is very inspiring. Of course I also have a little Shakespeare memorized for the play I am acting in this summer but as the Dauphin says I need only "do a very little little and all is done". I haven't got many lines.

I'm madly in love...

What's not to love? Dorothy is just the cutest little creature ever.

Henty must die!

Wait...He's already dead. That's comforting. I suppose I shouldn't get so worked up over just a book, but Winning His Spurs is really boring. Yes, it almost has me in tears. It is sooo a guy book. Cuthbert is like...a male Elsie Dinsmore. Ich, yeck, bleh. This is actually something I would post on my Xanga. But Xanga is temporarily down, and I need to whine now! Yes, I'm suffering deeply. I read 12 chapters of that book yesterday! Ooh. The pain! The pain!

Once more at home

By God's grace, I was able to visit some friends at Christ the King church in Springfield, MO this weekend. Seeing Autumn again was absolutely delightful. Girls from 3 to 6 are my specialty, and can be very good for one's ego (depending on how you define "good"), she told me I was very pretty. I'm gratified. Nice to see the other Johnstons, too. Lorisha is such fun to talk too!

Nice to meet others, too. Especially the ones I had "met" already.

Goodbyes are awful for me. I hate leaving. Driving away I was listening to Strong Hand of Love, a wonderful song by Mark Heard that makes me cry even when I'm not upset about leaving people I love (without even ever dancing!).


Down peppers the rain from a clear blue sky
Down trickles a tear on a youthful face
Feeling in haste and wondering why
Up struggles the sun from a wounded night
Out venture our hearts in their silent shrouds
Trying to ignite but wondering how

We can laugh and we can cry
And never see the strong hand of love
Hidden in the shadows
We can dance and we can sigh
And never see the strong hand of love
Hidden in the shadows

Young dreamers explode like popped balloons
Some kind of emotional rodeo
Learning too slow and acting too soon
Time marches away like a lost platoon
We gracefully age as we feel the weight of loving too late
And leaving too soon

We can laugh and we can cry
And never see the strong hand of love
Hidden in the shadows
We can dance and we can sigh
And never see the strong hand of love
Hidden in the shadows