Interestingly enough, someone I wrote about felt sufficiently offended to write to me about being "impolite" - quoting a line in one of my previous blogs. So I did a bit of googling to find the origin of that saying and Wikipedia has the more authoritative origin of this saying
Well, as luck would have it, the link I put in earlier does not work, so I'll reproduce the relevant parts here. If you are interested to see the whole parts, just google the title (copy and paste onto a Google search)
It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings is a proverb, essentially meaning that one shouldn't assume the outcome of some activity (frequently a sports game) until it has actually finished.
This phrase in turn refers to the impression by many that at the end of every opera, an aria is sung by a heavy-set woman dressed like a valkyrie. A famous example of this is Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (aka the Ring cycle). This is a set of 4 separate operas (lasting about 15 hours), in which the final scene includes Brünnhilde (a very large Valkyrie) singing, and then riding onto Siegfried's funeral pyre.
The set collapses and the entire cycle ends up in the Rhine river, where it started. The "fat lady" is often illustrated with a horned helmet, a spear, possibly a shield, and possibly blond braids (to suggest Scandinavian ancestry).
Well, life is like a play, an opera. At the end of the play/ opera, things comes to an end. What is the legacy you have left behind? Does it matter who were your friends and who were your foes. The answer to me is NO. Once the play has ended, a new one begins ad infinitum.
In any case, if one were to dwell on the meaning of life and events happening to us, I think one of the soliloquy from Macbeth best sums up the meaning of life. Macbeth with his burning ambition and "the behind the power" wife had murdered King Duncan. Subsequently, after his wife died, he started to have nightmares, hauntings and visions. In this particular scene, he reflects on the meaning of life
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.
Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow,
a poor player,That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more.
It is a tale
Told by an idiot,
full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Macbeth Act 5, scene 5, 19–28
I like the last lines - a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying NOTHING!!
Live life to the fullest with people who appreciate you for who you are and what you are. Do NOT change to suit others. I may be weirdly unconventional - but I know many appreciate me for what I am.
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