"Love's Heralds Should be Thoughts!"

love's heralds should be thoughts,

Which ten times faster glide than the sun's beams,

Driving back shadows over louring hills

-William Shakespeare's: Romeo and Juliet

Act 2 Scene 4

A week ago I went with my sister and my daddy to see Romeo and Juliet. I am not a big believer in "love at first sight", and I've always thought that Romeo was a flakey little jerk who really just needed a chill pill. But my grandma, who visits the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City every year called me one morning, after seeing the show, and made me promise to see it. Then she bought me tickets. I was excited for the show, because the Festival is an incredible event, that is hard not to notice when walking around campus early in the fall semester, and I've always longed to go to a show. I was thrilled, because even if it wasn't my favorite of the Bard's plays, it was still one of those with which I was fairly familiar.

I went to the show and I LOVED IT! I mean, I'm sure all of you assumed before hand that I loved it, because I am a bit of a Shakespeare nut, and a bit of a romantic (except when it comes to "love at first sight" which I emphatically call "lust"). I loved it because the skilled company had made clear the relationships between the characters, which was something the previous production I had seen failed to do. They also made the characters seem human, and not some upstanding historical idea without much life outside the dialogue. The "blocking" of the characters (for those non-theatre people out there that means roughly: the movement on stage) was done in a way that I thought I was looking at genuine interactions and not a scripted scene. I suppose it had to do with casting as well this time. Where as in previous times that I have seen the show, Romeo has been cast as a bit too strapping of a gentleman, but this Romeo had a very fine face, almost porcelain in color, and very beautiful, and his body, though nice, was not bulging with muscles. I his character was real, with so many believable dimensions, not flat and lifeless as I've seen in other productions.

My grandma was right, it was an incredible production. I could go on for hours about how much I loved the page, but I have but a few moments left on here, and I have some other matter on which I wish to speak: email v.s. the USPS

The USPS has a special place in my heart because my maternal grandparents both worked there at some point, it seems that most adult members of my family have worked there at some time or other, and one of my amazing aunts still works there. Every time I see a postman or woman I smile and thank them in my heart for the work they do, because I'm sure it's no picnic having to drive from house to house carrying mail all day come hell or high water. It's not a job for the feint of heart. I really admire them, but it comes as no surprise that in this society where everything has to come "like, ten minutes ago" that the gallant workers of the USPS have become termed snail mail, even though they can get a letter from my niece in Logan to myself in Cedar over night, they're still seen as slow, But they're doing this service at such a low rate, for such a low cost.

I understand when slow can be an issue, like when you're waiting for a letter to arrive from your special friend who happens to be an ocean away, and the letter just isn't coming. It makes one feel as Juliet does in Act 2 Scene 4 of the play as she is waiting for her nurse to return with the news that Romeo had sent with her, that "love's heralds should be thoughts" because thoughts are faster, something like email, which is supposed to be instant (actII scene iii). I say "supposed to be instant" because I have been waiting for the same email for almost a whole day, which for email is a long time! It took a whole week for another email to get from the same sender, back to me, so I am very nervous that this one will take just as long. but I like to think positive and just be concerned that the email was sent to the wrong address or something human like that.

The email is a copy of a letter that was sent for me to my parent's address in Sandy, and had been much anticipated, so I can hardly wait to receive it. I am feeling much as I imagine Juliet did as she waited for the nurse, and like Juliet I will have to wait until at least high noon for this problem to be resolved. (lucky for me I am certain that the letter did not contain any plans for a marriage because the writer is not my true love)

Well, I've borrowed your ear for too much time, I wish you the best!

-PenningJade