Death closes all: but something ere the end, Some work of noble note, may yet be done, Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods. The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks: The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends, ‘T is not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die. It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’ We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
“Acting sometimes reminds me of therapy in that the more you talk about a traumatic or profound event, the more it loses its emotional tension. The trick is to live in so much mystery, to rely on a feeling, an instinct, on faith, really, that everything I need is already inside me, and best I just don’t block the exit.”
“Much of what we consider valuable in our world arises out of one-sided conflicts. Because the act of facing overwhelming odds, produces greatness and beauty.”
– Malcolm Gladwell (David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants)
I’ve always been struck by the level of gravitas and charge Anthony Hopkins brings to his roles. He has an amazing ability to embody the acute vulnerability of the human condition in all its limitation and then, through some kind of iron willpower, to take full possession of the forces of Nature and show us what is possible. In the clip above, one sees this in the man himself – I too, wish to someday be an ‘old fool’ like Hopkins.