All the World is a Stage

or 15 Minutes of Fame

In his play "As You Like It", a comedy, written in 1599 or early 1600 William Shakespeare quoted, what was already a cliche at that time, the line "All the world is a stage and all the men and women merly players". If that be true then I wonder what part I am playing and whether or not this world will be left better off for it.

In 1968 Andy Warhol made a statement that has lived on as one of his most famous quotations. It was "In the future everyone will have their 15 minutes of fame". I was already into my adulthood in 1968 and have been waiting for the last 42 years for my 15 minutes. I must have missed it somewhere along the way. Could it have been because I didn't write down all the things that happened that I just didn't understand. If that be the case then I will try to change course and start with one I heard a few days ago.

Things I don't understand - Part one.

While watching television last week I heard a United States Congressman say that if this administration would stop fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring all our men and women home then we could save over a trillion dollars. He said we could use that money to create jobs so that we wouldn't have any more unemployment and our economy would be robust again. At first I couldn't understand how that would make much difference in our economy but then I got to thinking (some people say that is when I get dangerous so I try to limit it to no more than once a week) and it would appear to work something like this. If we just quit and walk away from those wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, like we did in Viet Nam, then we wouldn't need more than half of our servicepeople (after all if we quit fighting the terrorist they will love us and won't attack us - right). It gets down right exhilarating just thinking about all the money we could be saving.
Where should we start in recounting those savings, well since we won't need all those military people we will save millions in pay, then we won' need all those bombers, fighter, helicopters, drones, aircraft carriers and support ships, submarines, bombs, rockets, torpedos, tanks and other armored vehicles or any other munitions. Then if we don't need all of those we won't need as much steel so we can save money there and don't forget the food services which supplies all the food, especially the "Meals Ready to Eat",to our men and women in combat zones.
But then another thought, that's two in one day - really dangerous, after we save all that money what happens to all the men and women who would have lost their jobs simply because we no longer need their service or expertise? Do you think it could be feasible that some of those who would be left unemployed would take the jobs that are now filled by illegal immigrants? If so then that would help alleviate the illegal problem but on the other hand many of those people came to this country with the sole purpose of taking what wasn't theirs. After all of this, looking at it from many different angles, analyzing the pros and cons and thinking way too much, about the best thing I can come up with is; "That's one thing I still don't understand".

Now what, you may ask, does all of this have to do my part on the world stage or my quest for 15 minutes of fame? As to the fame, maybe if I had started early in life writing about all the things I didn't understand then I could have written a book and became world famous - or maybe not and as for my role on the world stage that is just another thing I don't understand. If I ever figure it out I will let you know. Thanks, William