Jack Tar

The story of an extraordinary, common man's journey to enlightenment through
Immortal Poems of the English Language & Poems on the Underground

A "Poetical", a musical, but with Poems instead of Songs

Poems

In order of Appearance

Poems On The Underground

We have wrapped filming Sunday, July 28. In Post production. Release in October 2024

To whine or not to whine: that is the question:
Whether 'tis merely in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of exaggerated misfortune,
Or to take reason against a chimera of catastrophes,
And by disputing end them? To see: to awake;

No more; and by awaking to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand imagined shocks
That ego is heir to. ‘Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To see, to awake;
To awake: perchance to soar: aye there's delight;

For in that dawn of insight what heights may come
When we have shuffled off our moral foil,
Must give us hope. There's the respect
That makes equanimity for a long life;
For who wouldn’t bear the whips and scorns of mistresses,

The oppressor's prong, the proud man's costumes,
The pangs of disprized lust, the law's decay,
The insolence of oriface, or the time
and patient merit everyone deserves,
When he himself might his own mind quiet

With but a fair appraisal? Who wouldn't old farts bear,
And laugh and play even under a weary life,
Since logic slays the dread of things here and after death,
That undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns (Hawaii, Tahiti, perhaps Fuji?), frees the will,

And let's us bear rather well those ills we have
Than fly to others that we imagine less?
Thus intellect doth make heroes of us all;
And thus the native hue of disillusion
Is taken o'er by the hale heart of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents surge, then fly,
And take the name of action!

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? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action

"To Whine, or Not To Whine"

vs

"To Be, or Not To Be"

"To Whine, or Not To Whine" is dedicated to Dr. Albert Ellis, the first person to create a Cognitive Behavior Therapy, which he named, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT). REBT is a practical method to challenge and change the thinking/beliefs that cause painful mental emotions, which, in turn, cause self-defeating behaviors. The underlying theory has been around since the Greeks, but Dr. Ellis was the first to develop the system and training that has been proven, with double blind tests, to really work; and it does so fairly quickly, months, not years of paying someone to listen to you talk about your mother.

Now, of course, my parody, Hamlet's soliloquy, and Hamlet's throwaway line, "for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so", are all exaggerations. No one is ever going to be happy living in constant pain. No one is going to like it when they lose someone they care for or fail at something really important. But for most of us, most of the time, most of our pain is self-inflicted, created by our exaggerations, by our catastrophizing about whatever.

We were taught to do this by fairy tales, cartoons, TV shows, parents, friends, religions, the law, from almost everyone and every source surrounding us. But most of the time other people's actions cannot, and certainly not mere words can cause us real pain.

Think about a football game. Thousands, if not millions of people see the exact, same game. Yet some become happy, some become sad, some in-between and a few at the extremes. In fact, there is a wide spectrum of emotions about the exact same game. So it couldn't be the game that caused the emotions. It had to be the thoughts each person had about the game, their beliefs that this child's game had something to do with their self worth. Since we are stronger when we are part of a group, survived through the eons because we did belong to a group, and continue to survive better when we are part of some group, it is natural for us to want to belong to a group today, especially a winning group. We are easily convinced that they are our team, that when they win, we win, or the opposite, when in fact, the game really has nothing to do with us, our family, our job, house, car, nothing that is really important to us.

So when we think about it, we can see that it is our thoughts, our beliefs about what happens that causes our emotions. We can dispute those beliefs, we can change our thinking, and thereby change our emotions and the behaviors they cause.

But knowing the rules and theory of playing football doesn't make you any good playing it. Lots of practice does. Practicing disputing and practicing replacing the ideas that hurt and hold us back with ones that will make us feel better and thereby do better.

It's like a horse and rider. The horse is your automatic reactions, trained to react a certain way to certain triggers. Your consciousness is the rider, the smart part that figures out better ways to think, feel and react. Your horse knows the way back to the barn. So, without you thinking about it, it goes back to the barn the same way, every day. Then one day you think of a better, shorter, less difficult way back. So you consciously make your horse go that way. However, the next day you are thinking about something else. And, lo and behold, your horse goes back to the old way. You have to retrain your horse over many days until the new way becomes a habit. It is the same with your emotions. You can retrain your automatic thinking, thereby changing your automatic reactions so you feel better and do better, IF you practice, if you really work at it. Knowing is not enough. Your horse has to be retrained and that takes time and lots of practice.

Dr. Ellis' last addition to his theory was Unconditional Acceptance: unconditional acceptance of yourself, of others, and of the universe as it exists. Acceptance does not mean liking it. But it is really essential for more happiness, a better life. I modified the famous prayer to reflect this:

"May I have the courage and perseverance to change the Important things that I can change; the patience to endure the important things that I cannot change, as well as all those, supposedly, "terribly" irritating unimportant ones; and the wisdom to enjoy the difference"

Dr Ellis wrote over 70 books addressing about every problem our thinking causes and how to correct it. Moreover, the professionals he trained, his students and associates have written many more books on how to live a happier and more productive life.

So search for Dr. Albert Ellis, REBT, and its closely aligned cohort, CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy) developed shortly after Ellis' by Dr. Aaron Beck.

So now, ~"you don't have to spend your life in chains since you now know you have the key!" - kudos to Jack Tempchin and Robb Strandlund

You won't be sorry.

Jack Tar

About Us

In high school I was forced to memorize certain poems, one of which was, "To Be, or Not To Be". That struck a cord in me - unfortunately, it was a sour cord. After being enlightened by Dr. Albert Ellis' "Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy", I wrote a parody, "To Whine, or Not To Whine"

In college I had to take a English Literature course, which included some poems from Immortal Poems of the English Language, An Anthology Edited by Oscar Williams. One poem we studied, "To His Coy Mistress", by Andrew Marvell was the beginning of my personal, "Dead Poets Society". That poem launched me into a quest to memorize seduction poems. I read that book, cover to cover, looking for poems that might get me laid. In that journey I discovered the other poems in this play, poems which stuck my intellect as more meaningful, logical or amusing.

Two of the poems I discovered while riding on the London Underground, "What Lips My Lips Have Kissed", by Edna St. Vincent Millay, and, "And Yet The Books Will Be There on the Shelves", by Czeslaw Milosz

I have woven them all into this coming-to-enlightenment play.

Contact
jacktar@jacktar.pro

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