Episode 49 – Polonius and the Lion King
Storytelling returns to Happy Road with two great stories that talk about being honest with oneself and pursuing your authentic vocation. Explore a Rastafarian parable and find out how it ties in with advice given by Polonius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Then, a rather sickly podcast host reveals the truth behind exercising while you have a cold… Should you do it? Or is it better to wait until you’re feeling better? Find out on this week’s show!
Podcast available via direct RSS feed –> HERE, or via iTunes –> HERE.
Show Notes:
If you’d like a written version of the African/Rastafarian parable I read on the show, you can find it here.
Want to know more about Rastafarianism? Here’s a good article in The Telegraph.
Elizabethan English is not everyone’s thing, so if you’d like to take a look at the passage from Hamlet that I read this week and get the modern English version at the same time, here’s a great side-by-side version that might help you out.
Here are the Top 10 pieces of fatherly advice Polonius tries to impart on his son Laertes
- Keep your thoughts to yourself. Don’t speak them out loud and don’t go off half-cocked, or don’t act on half-cooked ideas.
- Be casual and down-to-earth, but don’t be vulgar.
- Stick to your your true friends closely. Bind yourself to them like with rings of steel.
- Don’t waste money trying to wine and dine every Tom, Dick, and Harry, trying to win them over as friends.
- Stay away from stupid arguments and fights. But if you’re already in one, fight fiercely.
- Listen to everyone who speaks to you, but only speak back to those who are worth your energy.
- Listen to the critiques and opinions of others, but you don’t have to take it to heart. Reserve your own judgment.
- Spend as much as you can afford on clothes because clothes make the man. Especially in France.
- Don’t borrow money from friends, and don’t lend it out either. Because borrowing and lending money among friends ruins friendships.
- Be true to yourself. If you are true to yourself, then you cannot and will not be false to anyone else.
Here’s some advice from Lifehacker: Don’t keep up with the Joneses… They’re broke!
Should you exercise when you’re suffering from a cold? WebMD has a good answer, and so does the Mayo Clinic.
Credits:
All classical music beds courtesy of the International Music Score Library Project.
Music beds courtesy of Music Alley from Mevio and the Free Music Archive.
Thanks to artists: ZeroV, Duane Carter Band, Gepel, Incidental Fusion, Marimba From Mother Africa.