THE SCHOOL OF LIFE: Should We Laugh Or Should We Cry?

It Can Be A Harsh World. Should We Laugh Or Should We Cry?

Cheerful Despair

Seen in one way, being alive is a remarkable, wondrous thing. In Act II of Hamlet, Shakespeare voices a feeling of awe at the dignity of the human condition:


What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an Angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!


Our brains are the most delicate and complex products of the natural world; while other creatures can only bark or bray we can transmit our deepest thoughts via slight motions of our lips; we can envisage the totality of the cosmos though we occupy the tiniest portion of space; by our arts and sciences we can infinitely extend the power of our bodies; we can plunge to the ocean floor and catapult ourselves towards the stars. MORE