Happy Fourth of July

Here I sit in our capital on the fourth of July, and my most pressing needs are a laundromat and a cup of coffee. Mundane concerns, yet important to me. I've been here a week and what a week it has been. Our sessions this week ended with a lecture, then lunch time discussion with Barbara Mowat, one of the two editors of the Folger Shakespeare Editions - the books I use in class, and the ones we are using this summer. Her perspective on Shakespeare is so filled with her deep, detailed, extremely close knowledge of all the plays. One of the last questions of the day was based on her years of reading his work, what does she see in William Shakespeare?
Here's what she said: (based on my notes)

Compassion as the greatest of virtues
Aberration for women - that the relationships between men and women are strange, and fickle but that the women in WS are amazingly constant
A sense of his own weakness as a man
A tremendous interest in the family structure
She said except for these patterns, there's no way to know this man. 'We can only get so deep"

She also sees - an openness of spirit, an understanding of evil (this was emphasized).
She feels he is showing us that we need to look at things the way they are; when we don't see what is right in front of us, things go bad. Trust will only take you so far, but compassion is what you need.

(A good place to end) She also believes the conspiracy theories are nuts, for the most obvious reason - what would induce so many people to participate in a such wide spread conspiracy (because everyone would have to be in on it).

Yesterday all day in the Folger Reading Room, today need to start working on writing up what I am doing. Want to reread Twelfth Night and figure out a few more assignments (in my free time).

Still hoping to get into the city to see a museum, though I have kind of decided against trying to see the fireworks - fear the heat and humanity might be too much for me.

And I'm going to have to find a laundromat. The machines here at AU have not worked all weekend; nothing is open is campus (not even McDonald's). I suppose I can live without coffee, but clean clothes is not something I intend to forgo.

Happy Fourth!