To be or not to be

We're talking about Shakespearean quotes over on the Vixen blog today, and it got me to thinking about just how much one person can accomplish in a lifetime. After his death in 1616, Shakespeare's first folio was published and it included 154 sonnets, 37 plays and 2 long poems. Imagine if something you create--whether it be a manuscript, a work of art, the design of a famous building--lives on to continue to inspire and provide entertainment and enjoyment for generation upon generation of children and adults the world over.

That's how I feel about my writing. Even though I doubt my work will ever reach a third of the people that Shakespeare's writing did, I feel good that there are a few people out there who will read my books and share them with others, perhaps find them worthy enough to set on a shelf to keep and read again someday. Maybe I will inspire a few would-be writers in producing a new generation of literature. It's a great feeling.

It's the same feeling I get when I look at my son and watch him grow, knowing he will have children, who will have children, etc...and that all these people in the years to come will have something new and important to give to the world.

So, that's my deep thought for the day as I start writing Chapter three of my new WIP.

(Photo: By unknown c1815 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/gall/0,,1721587,00.html) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)