act 1, scene 3

i have a friend who works at the market i frequent and we've developed the art of encouragement while she's stocking shelves, a sort of "daily affirmation in the frozen foods section" if you will.

this week when it was my turn, being hungry and tired, all i could come up with was borrowed words, so i said, "to thine own self be true."

when i arrived home less than an hour later, there was a package waiting for me, out from which tumbled a magnet bearing the same words, "to thine own self be true"!?

shakespeare, in hamlet, has polonius speak this line. the second part, however, is just as key and that is, "... and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."

sounds suspiciously like "love thy neighbor as yourself" to me. and i am left pondering this interaction and mystery: in what ways do being true to ourselves better, and more authentically, serve others?

(not to worry, mom, this isn't a picture of my arm)