This Above All

I’ve told this tale to many of my friends. When I was 15 or 16 one of my high school teachers wrote this quote from Shakespeare on the blackboard: This above all, to thine own self be true. Polonius says it to his son Laertes in Hamlet. Then and there I thought it was a wonderful quotation, and an even greater exhortation on how to live one’s life.

It’s not always easy to be true to oneself though – there are too many people to please, and too many pushing and pulling in different directions. But it has always been something to inspire and motivate me to be self-aware and stay honest, even if I am entirely frank only with myself. But that’s just between me and my journal … which has an electronic password.