Ophelia

I was – as is often the case – listening to Jay-Z’s music while navigating through my day, and stumbled on this little gem:

The relaxed beat and the reminiscent tone it evokes, plus Jay-z’s soft voice, threw me into a nostalgia loop. The entire song is a vibe, but the lyrics that got me were

Assume a virtue if you have not
Or better yet here’s a verse from Hamlet
Lord, we know who we are
Yet we know not what we may be
So maybe I’m the one or maybe I’m crazy

Out of curiosity, I ended up investigating the original Hamlet text and this is what I found

“Well, God’ield you! They say the owl was a baker’s daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table.” — Ophelia

It turns out Ophelia ended up committing suicide due to the loss of her father and her lover, so her quote had somewhat of a mysterious but negative connotation. I prefer the more optimistic tone in the song and take it as a reminder that we can only be certain of who we are today, yet the fact that tomorrow is uncertain is a reason to be excited, since we don’t know what it holds and who we will become.

Or I don’t know, maybe I’m just crazy.