The Hyperion Chronicles

the Hyperion Chronicles
"A plague on both your houses, and your hotel on Park Place”

#84 “There art thou happy”

Romeo and Juliet—Act III, Scene III

[For those of you unfamiliar with the story, Romeo and Juliet are dumb teenagers who fall head over heels in love (while looking through a fish tank). They come from Italy’s version of the Hatfields and the McCoys, or for my international readers, the Lancasters and Yorks, so naturally their love is doomed. But, like all dumb teenagers. Logic or family problems don’t stop them, and they secretly wed. Now, Juliet has a cousin named Tybalt, and he goes after Romeo when he found out what was going on. Romeo tries to make peace with Tybalt, and Romeo’s friend Mercutio was slain instead of Romeo. Then Romeo kills Tybalt. He runs to Friar Lawrence, upset because he thinks Juliet will be mad at him (for killing her cousin), and upset because he’s been banished to BFE (don’t ask). Romeo is whining and complaining, even threatening to kill himself, until finally the Friar has had enough, and puts the proverbial smack down, in the speech below. I know that’s a lot of back story for a few lines, but trust me, it’s worth it]

Friar Lawrence: Hold thy desperate hand: Art thou a man?
Thy form cries out thou art: thy tears are womanish;
Thy wild acts denote the unreasonable fury of the beast:
Unseemly woman in a seeming man!
Or ill-beseeming beast in seeming both! [Don’t hate: it’s Shakespeare]
Thou has amaz’d me: by my holy order, I thought thy disposition better temper’d.
Has thou slain Tybalt? Wilt thou’st slay thyself?
And slay the lady, too, that lives in thee, by doing damned hate upon thyself?
Why rail’st thou on they birth, the heaven and earth?
{…}
Digressing from the valour of a man;
Thy dear love sworn, but hollow perjury,
Killing that love which thou hast vow’d to Cherish;
Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love,
Mis-shapen in the conduct of them both,
Like powder in a skilless soldier’s flask,
Is set a-fire by thine own ignorance,
And thou dismember’d with thine own defence.
[Okay: here’s the good part!]
What, rouse the, man! Thy Juliet is alive.
For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead;
There art thou happy: Tybalt would kill thee,
But thou slew’st Tybalt; there art thou happy too:
The law, that threatened death becomes thy
And turns it to exile; there art thou happy:
A pack of blessing lights upon thy back:
Happiness courts thee in her best array;
But, like a misbehav’d and sullen wench,
Thou pout’st upon thy fortune and thy love:
Take heed; take heed, for such die miserable.
Go, get thee to thy love as was decreed
Ascend her chamber, hence and comfort her.

Wow! If there were only more clergy like that, church pews would never be empty! The point of the passage above is that we often complain about everything we don’t have and forget about everything we do.

You hate the fact that you’re targeted just because you live in a free country, but you do live in a free country, where for the most part you can do what you like, and billions of people would give anything to trade places; there art thou happy.

Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden are scourges who threaten world peace, but they don’t live in the apartment above you; there art thou happy.

Traffic is bad and cars are lined up to get to the mall, and gasoline prices are going up, but you have a car that will take you places, like the mall, where you can buy things without having to explain it to anyone, and gasoline is cheaper than anywhere else in the world; there art thou happy.

Your job sucks and your coworkers are all mean to you, but you have a job that provides some income, when so many do not; there art thou happy.

Your taxes are too high, but if you’re robbed the police will come, and if knock over the menorah the fire department will come and there are hospitals and roads and Congress...okay, so this isn’t a perfect example, but still; there art thou happy.

There are long lines at the airport, but at least you can fly where you want to visit friends and family with a minimum of resistance, and if you have to take extra time and open a bag or take off your shoes, all that is going to making you safe; there art thou happy.

The price of prescription medicine is unbelievably high, but 50 years ago the odds are that the medicine you take now didn’t exist and the people who have the pain you have either suffered or just died, whereas your life can be immeasurably improved; there art thou happy.

The print size is too small or the page is too long, but that means you can read, and have your sight, when so many cannot or do not; there art thou happy.

Your kid won’t turn off her stupid music, but that means she still lives with you and you still have your hearing; there art thou happy.

You have gastrointestinal problems, but you get to see the looks on people’s face when you rip a big one; there art thou happy.

You hate your aunt’s cooking, but at least you have food to eat when so many go hungry; there art thou happy.

Your family is a pain in the balls, but at least you have family when so many are alone at this time of year; there art thou happy.

You get the point. Yeah, your life sucks, and everything is horrible, but many of the things you complain about other people would be desperate to have. It may seem cliché to tell you to be happy the thorn bush has roses rather than the rose bush having thorns, but it’s still true. No matter how bad you think your life is, it could be a lot worse. What’s more, there are many great things around you that you’re not even paying attention to. Well, stop it, and look at what you have!

Thanks for reading my thoughts; there am I happy.

Hyperion
December 23, 2002