“To sleep, perchance to dream…” So said Prince Hamlet in Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. But I often don’t dream. I fall asleep if I’m lucky, and the night passes unnoticed by me. The night could be a single night or a million dreamless nights. I wouldn’t know the difference. I’m what some people call “dead to the world.” But Hamlet wasn’t talking about that kind of sleep.
Hamlet’s soliloquy begins with another famous phrase: “To be, or not to be.” So, “To sleep, perchance to dream…” has nothing to do with that thing I often struggle with during the night. Hamlet is talking about death. “To be, or not to be … to sleep, perchance to dream …” Sleep is a metaphor for death; dream is a metaphor for consciousness after death. Hamlet is contemplating suicide but fears he might not find peace even after death.
I feel like I’m back in my British literature class in college. But in those long ago days, Shakespeare’s play was merely words. Now they have meaning. Especially after so many people have recounted near-death experiences. We have to consider it is possible that consciousness does not end at death. And if it does not, then what will be our fate? Will we have to account for each and every one of our failings? I fear that we will.
I try to live my life on the principle that if I intentionally hurt someone, I’ve got a lot of explaining to do to The Powers That Be. I have a feeling it’s not the kind of thing I can talk my way out of. If only I had been a lot smarter a lot sooner.
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