Education in Shakespeare and homelessness

I had an interesting weekend. Saturday I took Alec and Ethan out to the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton to see Macbeth. Yesterday the family pitched in at the church to help feed the homeless.

As a Shakespeare fan I try to see a few performances every year, but this time I had the ulterior motive of providing Alec and Ethan an education in theater. Ethan performed in the Live Arts production of Macbeth earlier this year, so even though he is only nine years old he is very familiar with the storyline. Alec saw a number of these performances and so he too knows the play. My goal was to give the boys the opportunity to see differences in directorial methods, set design, costuming and acting technique, so that they could begin to think about the possibilities of theater. Before Saturday, Macbeth, in their minds, was only what they knew from Live Arts. Now it is something more.

Ethan in particular seemed to really appreciate the performance. A number of times he gently tapped me with his elbow, and with an excited expression in his eyes whispered, "Dad! This [i.e. the scene about to happen] is going to be great!"

And it was. The acting quality was some of the best I have ever seen in Shakespeare. Having a resident troupe of dedicated -- not to mention salaried -- Shakespearean actors makes a significant difference.

Last night we assisted in feeding and housing about fifty homeless men from Charlottesville at the church. The program is called PACEM and is a collaboration of thirty-six local churches that shelter men during the cold months of winter. This is the kids' first exposure to poverty and it made an impression, but not the one you would expect. What stood out for them was that the homeless looked like anyone they might meet on the street: many races, from age late-twenties to sixties, fat, thin, dressed in tee-shirts and jeans or (in one case) a button-down shirt and khakis. A few had jobs. They were polite and appreciative without exception.

My hope is that my boys grow up free of the prejudice against the poor that we see so often these days. I believe that yesterday was a good first step.

Your company now MUST track your email

Starting today, be careful of what you type into a company email or instant message:

U.S. companies will need to keep track of all the e-mails, instant messages and other electronic documents generated by their employees thanks to new federal rules that go into effect Friday, legal experts say.

The rules, approved by the Supreme Court in April, require companies and other entities involved in federal litigation to produce "electronically stored information" as part of the discovery process, when evidence is shared by both sides before a trial....