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What Was Prospero Thinking?

At the end of Shakespeare's The Tempest, old Prospero abandons his magical powers and sails home to Milan. He had his enemies assembled on an island. He could have avenged all wrongs but chose mercy instead. Now, as he heads toward an uncertain future, he says "every third thought will be my grave." A younger me used to read that line and think "how morbid. He's just given up." Anna Deavere Smith's Let Me Down Easy, among other things, is about death and dying. Toward the end, she portrays people who have found various ways to drop the imagined cloak of bulletproof living and accept their mortality. Prospero may be sullen and despairing. True. Or it could be that, recognizing his end is in sight, every first and second thought will feel more alive.

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At the end of Shakespeare's The Tempest, old Prospero abandons his magical powers and sails home to Milan. He had his enemies assembled on an island. He could have avenged all wrongs but chose mercy instead. Now, as he heads toward an uncertain future, he says "every third thought will be my grave." A younger me used to read that line and think "how morbid. He's just given up." Anna Deavere Smith's Let Me Down Easy, among other things, is about death and dying. Toward the end, she portrays people who have found various ways to drop the imagined cloak of bulletproof living and accept their mortality. Prospero may be sullen and despairing. True. Or it could be that, recognizing his end is in sight, every first and second thought will feel more alive.

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4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
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