Aim at nothing in particular and you‘re bound to hit it. That’s it then. Well not actually. However well thought through a young person’s career plan may be, it may well crumple when it comes into contact with reality. The discovery that there is a price to be paid takes the shine off the woodwork. As usual Shakespeare is at home with his subject: ‘Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.’
Succinct? Yes undoubtedly. But the words are not to be taken quite at their face-value. This is Mark Antony speaking and he is not composing a Gospel or preaching a sermon. He is manipulating an audience. He is giving his hearers some space to review their verdict.
What, is he not getting his audience to think about the meaning of ambition, that hard edged virtue that delivers? Yes, of course but whose understanding of ambition is he putting into their heads – Brutus’s or Caesar’s? Caesar wept for them. Did Brutus? Antony gently edges his audience from one understanding of ambition to another.
Ambition may involve a tangle with other people. Uncomfortable moments or longer periods of time may be required. One man’s ambition fulfilled may be another man’s downfall.
Mark Antony had what is often the distasteful task of inducing people to change their loyalties. Shakespeare gave him a winning hand to play. And the persuader did his task to perfection.
Fulfilling an ambition may require somebody to say ‘No.’ That is rarely easy. It may require some demolition work. It may provoke a visceral reaction. When Jesus contradicted his disciples, Peter in particular took exception (Mark 8.32). Maybe Shakespeare had this in mind when he wrote ‘Julius Caesar’. Words flutter in and out of our consciousness without asking our permission.
NO ANSWER
‘Tell them I came, and no one answered,
That I kept my word, he said.
Walter de la Mare (‘The Listeners)
HAVANT TRADITION
For nine centuries the church of St Faith (she was a legendary girl martyr in Aquitaine) has been repaired, refurbished, reshaped. It can justifiably describe itself as a church that values tradition. Its website features a 48-second video introducing itself to visitors in the Portsmouth area.
With a full programme, including lunch-time concerts and a Big Build campaign to refurbish the church and Pallant centre, the Rector Tom Kennar and his team continue the St John’s story.
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