It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves...

For many on the Steemit platform it's all about meme's, an image with scant text, maybe a line identifying the camera-phone or camera the random image was taken with or some such other post. However there are also many great author's crafting excellent pieces on many various topics; Authors who write with passion and intellect often beyond their years. That's the nature of social media I suppose; It's open to all and sundry and one can post pretty much anything at all; Even scrubbers like me.

I'm not a great writer, certainly no Chaucer, J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen King, Virginia Woolf or William Shakespeare. I'm bound by my intellect and ability but write nonetheless and enjoy doing so. My livelihood is never going to depend on my writing fortunately; It's just a hobby, something to pass the time and exercise my brain a little.

As a man who likes to write it is probably no surprise that I also like to read and I have my favourite writers of course, Tolkien and Raymond E Feist among others. One writer I'm not so much of a fan of is Shakespeare though. Sure I respect him as a writer but his style doesn't do much for me. Still, it didn't stop me for visiting his grave and home town, Stratford-Upon-Avon recently when I was in the UK. I visited the house he was raised in and walked through a museum dedicated to him then walked up to the Church of the Holy Trinity where he lies buried.

The image to the left is his actual grave within the church. It's open to the public for a fee (they call it a donation). I can't recall what the suggested donation was but I think it was 7 pounds (just under $14 AUD). It's pretty steep I think however the old building (the church) must cost a fortune in upkeep so I guess it's fair. You can see a plaque in the image, depicting the words selected by Shakespeare himself, to be engraved upon his grave stone.

Good friend for Jesus's sake forebear, to dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, and cursed he that moves my bones.

To this day his grave has been left undisturbed, out of respect or maybe fear of his curse. I'm not sure which.

I spent the day in the town, a very busy little town crowded with throngs of people eager to learn more about the life of the great writer or simply grab a selfie with his house in the background for their Twitface account. Either way it makes for an extremely busy place. The town itself is quite nice with the Avon running through, some very nice old buildings and of course the main attraction itself. All things Shakespeare.

I'm glad I visited as I can now say I've been there although to be honest it's definitely not one of the highlights of my UK trip. It was good, nothing more, nothing less. I'm sure there are people who would place it high upon their list of places to go though which is apparent considering the many people that were there although if you're not a massive fan of the man one could quite happily not go I think. I guess it comes down to personal choice.

I wonder what future generations will make of what you and I write on the blockchain and if anything we post will hold any value for people four of five hundred years in the future as does the work of William Shakespeare? I hope so. I mean my writing won't but hopefully out there somewhere is someone whose writing is that enduring. Maybe it's you? Maybe your destiny holds more than is apparent right now...

After all as the great man wrote:

"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves."
– William Shakespeare