Othello

There have been times in my life, like right now, and I look back, and completely understand the play, "Othello." Shakespeare had a knack for making characters that reflected life, and unfortunately, I understand this one more than most.

For those of you who don't know, Othello is an army commander with great honor, who is constantly poisoned (mentally, as it were) against his wife, by his "friend" Iago. Iago is a masterful villain, but I think more so because he is seen by the victim as their friends. If you think about it, you have to wonder how he must have felt. This was a man, surrounded by friends, all of whom were trying to turn him against each other. Of course those trying to turn him against Iago were indeed right to do so, but can you imagine his state of mind?

Imagine that you know someone is misleading you, but you know not who the traitor is. Think about all those small coincidences that could happen to turn you against someone. Each of us has had these circumstances that turn us against our friends when they shouldn't, and that is without a poisoning influence. Add them together, one could go mad.

You trust your friends. In fact, many would say that trust is a necessary hallmark of friendship. At what point do you decide that you have to chose between who is lying and who is not? And what if, as Othello did, you make the wrong choice?

Thoughts like this are scary, and I don't know what to do. I know that for someone who constantly seeks the truth, and yet is blindly optimistic especially with those I care about, it is a constant, and painstaking battle to see through the veil. To know that someone is always lying- as two opposing stories cannot mesh- among your closest friends and families is terrible. I speak not of one situation, but of a repeating play. This scenario may well be the one thing that I hate on this earth.