Looking for wisdom

                                                   
In light of the recent tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, the words of an African-American street person in New York spring to mind. In the aforementioned Shakespeare-related 1996 documentary film by Al Pacino, Looking for Richard, Pacino is speaking with people on the streets of New York City about Shakespeare, and about the playwright's relevance to the world we live in today. This one man-on-the-street response was perhaps the most thought-provoking moment of the entire film:

"Intelligence is hooked in with language. When we speak with no feeling we get nothing out of our society........We don't feel for each other,  that's why it's easy to get a gun and shoot each other. If we were taught to feel, we wouldn't be so violent......Shakespeare did more than help us. He instructed us."

The expression of feeling through language is one of humanity's most precious assets: it is not to be trivialized, not to be wasted, not to be scorned.

"My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.
Words without thoughts never to heaven go."

                                                               Hamlet       (III, iii)