Alan S. Austin
Arizona Playwright • Writer • Poet
  

Expose Thyself to Feel What Wretches Feel (8/25)

The "mugshot." A piece of history. Strip away the bodyguards, the limos, the fancy suits, the luxury villas, the entourage, the sycophants and all the paraphernalia of a life of wealth and ease and you are left with the man, a hollow-looking simulacrum, a human being nevertheless, mortal, podgy faced, with thin dyed hair and an attempted look of toughness. With so much to lose he has so far to fall. Like King Lear he still has to learn the futility of power and wealth. He must to go out into the storm to learn the lessons about our common humanity, "Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel," Lear shouts "That thou may'st shake the superflux to them And show the heavens more just." Like Lear, Trump is self-indulgent, vain, selfish, narcissistic, but once all the props of wealth and power are removed, he must learn humility and the lesson we must all learn, that our lives are temporary, that old age and death are inevitable, that the true measure of our lives is the love we give not the hatred, nor fear, that family is central and love eternal, that we will ultimately be judged by our deeds. In the mugshot, we glimpse "the man," unhappy, joyless, and sad.