I have spent much of today reading the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare which has been a pleasant thing to do, especially this morning sitting in the sunshine. Later it got a bit cooler and by the end of the day I was sitting inside by the fire still reading. I made some notes and have posted them as a Daily Teaching.
The morning was beautiful weather. We had breakfast outside again. There was still frost on the shaded areas but the sun was already up and warming us. We watched the robin making his rounds and tried to identify different birds by their calls. Conversation was largely stimulated by it being the Ides of march, hence my recourse to Shakespeare. One could not stay indoors. Elja was out spotting and collecting flowers - she was especially excited to find white violets hiding in the Eirene and Athena Woods. Meanwhile I spent a bit of time cutting ivy.
The Ceasar play is a great read. It contains many much-quoted lines, and plenty of action. Although the play is called Julius Caesar, it is, in many ways, the tragedy of Brutus that is central. He has a much bigger part than Caesar. However, the other leading characters are also all shot through with moral dilemma and contradiction too. The bard had a genius for bringing many contrasting characters to life so that one can easily identify even with personages on opposite sides of a struggle.
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