Twenty/Twenty

I've been reading Shakespeare's King Lear since the weekend. This evening, I reached Act 2 Scene 4 where Lear confronts Regan and Cornwall and says: "Beloved Regan, Thy sister's naught. O Regan, she hath tied Sharp-toothed unkindness, like a vulture, here." (Stage directions: He indicates his heart.)  

Prometheus did not immediately come to mind. Something about the powerful physical gesture Lear makes at this point set me thinking. From 'passion' my mind jumped to how this passionate play was loved by the English, of whose coldness some people have commented upon. From that to my own countrymen, Indians, of whose passion some people have also commented upon... And so on I went thinking of this, leading to that, ending at how when I was younger I was more clear-sighted about myself. Some predictions I jotted down about my future in my journal did come to pass (to my surprise). 

Anyhow, this is what my thoughts were and what I posted on a social networking site, before I resumed reading:

You know how vision worsens with age? I was thinking earlier of how metaphorical vision too worsens with age. It has in my case. Hindsight may be 20/20 ... But the road ahead, the present moment... all too difficult to read correctly. Is it to do with the fact that when one is young one can project, say the situation that one is in, on the "backdrop" of other people (in the classroom or the shop-floor)? Whereas when one is older, the people around you are fewer in number (there are fewer people at the top, where you may be placed at work and loneliness does exist in families....) Also, when one is younger, life stretches out before one, like a seemingly endless road. And that somehow helps you put things in some sort of perspective. This valuable element - space - shrinks with passing years. At any rate, it is the young who can, prophet-like, see the future (at least) in a cold clear light. It's all blurred after that.

Drop me a line if you care to share your thoughts.