"Words, words. They're all we have to go on."

For someone who disliked English language classes in school (but no where on the same level as mathematics), I've grown quite fond of the power of words.  Quite recently, I participated in a reading of Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead," one of my absolute favorite 'modern' plays thanks in large part to a film version starring Gary Oldman and Tim Roth. Tom Stoppard's plays are, when executed well, marvels to watch but especially to read because of his command of language.

To follow is a simple exchange from the first act:

GUILDENSTERN: Where are you going?

PLAYER: Ha-lt! (Tragedians halt and turn.) Home, sir.

GUILDENSTERN: Where from?

PLAYER: Home. We're traveling people. We take our chances where we find them.

GUILDENSTERN: It was chance then?

PLAYER: Chance?

GUILDENSTERN: You found us.

PLAYER: Oh, yes.

GUILDENSTERN: You were looking?

PLAYER: Oh, no.

GUILDENSTERN: Chance, then.

PLAYER: Or fate.

GUILDENSTERN: Yours or ours?

PLAYER: It could hardly be one without the other.

Concise and exact. A beginning, middle, and end. And a turn on what most people conceive as obvious yet forgetting the other half. On balance, the forgotten other constant of the universe - change. 

Philosophical. Deep. Call it whatever you want.  I'm only grateful that these words exist. In the order that they exist.

Because when all is said and done, it's what we'll have.