Day Two - Project 5

  Oh, Man.  I mean, I know I read Romeo and Juliet twenty-one years ago, so I should have just skimmed it, but DAMMMMMMMMMMMMMN....

  When I was 16 in grade 11, and had a teacher who was then a mentor and hero and friend and would become many years later a beloved colleague, I had to study this exercise in everything wrong with teenagers.  At the age of 16 I decided these two idiots were idiots.  Now, years past my peer-group misanthropy, I am a teacher of teenagers.  And NO, I do not think they're idiots.  I have more respect and understanding for teenagers now than when I was one.  But they do lack a sense of scale.

  In their defense, they haven't had the years to gain a sense of proportion, objectivity, self-awareness.  I remember what it was like, feeling that life would always be like THIS, feelings would always be THIS WAY, and whomever one was dating at the time was THE ONE TRUE LOVE OF THIS OR ANY ERA.  But what adults forget is that WE didn't just learn from our elders' experiences.  We learned from our own.

  Juliet and Romeo, however, didn't learn from anything.  These idiots WERE, ARE, and E'ER SHALL BE, idiots.  You really want to yell at the book.  Or go to a 17th century performance and yell from the penny-admission standing-room-only rows and yell.

  "Jeez, dude, wait a few weeks!  You just fell out of love with the last one an hour ago!"

  "Hell, girl, you're thirteen!  He's older than you by a few years!  Oh, and his family HATES you!  He might be trying to trick you to humiliate you!  Just cuz the internet and camera phones don't exist yet doesn't mean guys can't try to mess with your reputation!"

 
"If you love him, and have married him, banishment or no, GO WITH HIM!  He's RIGHT THERE!  If you're scared to leave home, MAYBE YOU'RE TOO DAMNED YOUNG TO GET MARRIED!"

  "Don't kill yourself!"

  "Don't kill yourself, either!"

 "IDIOTS!"

  I don't like Romeo and Juliet much.  I like the Friar, who's a little less idiotic than the rest.  And I like Benvolio and Mercutio.  I like the concept of Ruffed Toughs.  Oh, yeah, gonna bite my thumb at y'all, knowumsayin?

  Okay.  Taking a breather.

  On to King Lear.

 -Mike

  Dedicated to Jim Campbell.  The English teacher I'm trying to grow up to be.