“To be or not to be– that is the question: / Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer /
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles / And, by opposing, end them.” This remarkable passage from Shakespeare’s great play Hamlet are perhaps the most famous lines ever written in theater. And as Ira Riklis can tell you, they’re ever bit as relevant today as they were when they were first written.
The world faces a seemingly never ending sea of troubles these days. So much so that, like Hamlet, we wonder whether we can successfully end them. When Ira Riklis feels those doubts, he pauses to remember a parable told to him years ago by his Rabbi. A young man, walking along the shore of a real sea after a storm is picking up starfish and throwing them back in the water. When asked why by another beach walker, the boy replies that he’s trying to save the starfish by returning them to their home. He knows full well he can’t save them all. But one by one by one, he is opposing outrageous fortune and making a difference, however small, against a sea of trouble.