The answer is “to be”

We started watching the show Slings and Arrows recently. It’s a Canadian show about a large Shakespeare festival (basically the Stratford Festival) — the genre is a “backstage show.” It’s from the early 2000s. The first season has a song about Hamlet in the opening credits. The lyrics are great:

Cheer up, Hamlet!
Chin up, Hamlet!
Buck up, you melancholy Dane!
So your uncle is a cad who murdered Dad and married Mum.
That’s really no excuse to be as glum as you’ve become.
So wise up, Hamlet!
Rise up, Hamlet!
Perk up and sing a new refrain!
Your incessant monologizing fills the castle with ennui.
Your “antic disposition” is embarrassing to see,
And by the way, you sulky brat, the answer is “To be.”
You’re driving poor Opheila insane.
So shut up, you rogue and peasant!
Grow up, it’s most unpleasant!
Cheer up, you melancholy Dane!

I feel like the line “and by the way you sulky brat the answer is to be” is speaking to me beyond its intended purpose.

I complain an awful lot on here. I am the sulky brat. It’s not that I think my feeling are invalid. I do feel occasionally like I could be more grateful, though. There are many people who have less fulfilling lives. It’s just that mine isn’t going as I’d planned.

I’m getting ready to lead a continuing education series at my job about mental health training for K-12 educators. It makes me feel bad about no longer teaching. Some part of me also NEVER wants to go back to teaching. Then, working on my play Seeking Nietzsche makes me want to write more, but with what time? I’m so tired of being so busy.

Anyway, my sulking won’t be solved today. It’s just there’s a lot on my mind.