We always think of the past in terms of change.
"When I was young..."
"A few years ago we didn't..."
"It hasn't always been this way..."
But last night, as I sat watching a brilliant production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, it was easy to believe that some things truly don't change.
After all, Shakespeare wrote those words hundreds of years ago, and here is a group of high schoolers forfeiting their Friday night to hear them. Though the language is old (and beautiful, depending on your tastes), much of it still lives today. We unwittingly use words Shakespeare first penned, and his plots and reproduced over and over again.
And it's no mystery why these things don't die as easily as his characters seem to do. There's a reason the lines resound as easily with teenagers as the audiences of old. There isn't a high school student in the world who hasn't felt the sting of unrequited love, that can't sympathize with Helena as she clings to Demetrius and he pulls her around the stage or with Hermia's confusion as her love Lysander suddenly has changed his mind. Or even with Puck as he expresses remorse over his misdeeds before telling the audience not to be alarmed, it's all simply a dream.
These human emotions are timeless and unchanging. Even though we'd like to turn a nostalgic eye on the past, what matters always seems to stay the same.
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