Saturday, October 17, 2009

Boo Hoo. Swine Flu? Me Nervous! You Too?


A Nod (and a bow) to Hamlet's Soliloquy
by William Shakespeare, Act 3, Scene 1
adapted by Susan Noyes Anderson

To vaccinate, or not to vaccinate. That is the question:
Whether 'tis wiser in the body to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous swine flu,
Or to take aim against a sea of disease
And by immunizing, squelch it? To sneeze; to cough;
No more; and by a cough to say we've filled
The body with the thousand porcine germs
That flesh is heir to, tis a consummation
Devoutly to be shunn'd. To sneeze, to cough;
To cough: perchance to wheeze: ay, there's the rub;
For in that wheezy cough what chills may come
When we are fevered on this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of our decision;
For shall we bear the flu shot made in haste,
By scientists spurred on by time constraints,
The pangs of politics, the law's demands,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the process takes,
When we ourselves might bow for swine flu's sake
Without protection? who would headaches bear,
To grunt and sweat under a sickness foul,
Amidst the threat of something fouler still,
The undiscover'd side effect, from which
No Traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus the unknown makes cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And vaccinations of great pitch and promise
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action. ––Think you now!
The shot? The risks! The flu? The sickness stalking,
The doctors disagreeing.

10 comments:

jen said...

WELL DONE! Superbly constructed and planned. One of my top of all time!

Unknown said...

Whoa...you've got my heading with much swine flue ado...
I'm nervous about it...me too. :)

Janis said...

Wow. Well done! I'm fretting today. My Emily appears to have the flu according to the Dr. this morning. I'm totally freaking out! Ugh! Praying, praying, praying she is well soon and we don't get it! So happy you have electricity again!

karen said...

That's awesome. Well done!

Beck said...

Bwahahah! Brilliant!
(We're getting vaccinated.)

Heather Anderson said...

entertaining

Heather Anderson said...

Dear Grandma,

I love you! You are so special to me.

Love
Carli

Susan Anderson said...

Hey, thanks, Carli. You are pretty special yourself!

{:o)

xox
Grandma

PS. See you next month...

Em said...

oh sue, you read my mind! and what to do, what to do! my doc convinced me to get the flu vac and i think i'm going to get the h1n1 as well. only b/c last winter brought horendous medical adventures i would like to avoid this year with a newborn at home. rsv, flu, whatever, we don't want it. if i get the vaccines they will cross the placenta and baby will be vaccinated. one less thing to worry about. no to get myself there to get them.

Snarky Belle said...

Seriously, anyone who make the swine flu conundrum funny is a hero in my book. It's ok that I laughed right?