Renewal: Choosing Not To Be Affected

My cousin messaged me the other day in reply to an admission of weakness, "you can choose not to be affected."

How apt; can we truly decide what we feel or what we are affected by? Is it not the very acceptance of our emotions that provide testament to who we are as people? Driven to act and react, to react and act? Then again, as Shakespeare's plays show, these very emotions are exactly what give rise to plot, to tragedy and to drama. They power his simulacra of life.

Who do we choose to be in this life? Prospero? Ariel? Or Caliban? A man come into his power, a powerful spirit entrapped yet obedient, or a monster capable of beautiful speech? This Tempest called life.

"The Tempest" shows us the unforgiving power that choice gives and how lack of it imprisons even the most powerful. The first, being Prospero and the becoming of his life. The second being Ariel and a quest for freedom. Can even the very worst of us find redemption at the penultimate hour like Caliban? I wonder. Did Caliban even have a choice or was he but a creature of his own emotions? His own desires? To which persona do we swing towards? I would rule out Ariel I think. Emotional impotence is not something many of us have the luxury of. A fool of a monster or a fool of a man? What a choice.

In truth it seems that no one is innocent. There are no Ferdinands or Mirandas in this world. You may think you are her prince but then the curtains unfold on now and show you a different result. There are no supporting actors' masks we can slip into. We must act in the main or we are of the walking dead.

Strangely enough, we can muse all we want but not even so great a play can hold a mirror up to our own lives. In our own realities our emotions shake the very universe. The very acts and scenes that comprise our lives are inexorably powered by action and reaction brought out by emotion.

What if there is no Prospero, no Ariel, or even no Caliban? No expectant shoes to fill? What if there is no play to begin with? No unknown audience to view? Perhaps we can choose not to put one on in the first place, but then, in that case that would just be waiting for our lives to begin.

I have so many questions at this point and I veil my unease by pointing out a play whose very power lies in its absurdity of emotion. I know I have been both Prospero and Caliban but more so,

I am Tempest.