All the May Become a Man

            “I dare do all that may become a man,” declared Shakespeare’s Macbeth.  “Who dares do more is none.”

            I love this quote, and find it particularly relevant to this chapter.  However, in order to see why you might need to read a little more deeply.

            Most people, when first reading Macbeth’s speech, interpret “Who dares do more is none,” to mean “No one dares do more than I,” or “I am the bravest of them all.”

            However, in context you realize that when he says this, he’s responding to Lady Macbeth’s goading.  She is trying to get him to kill Duncan, kind of Scotland, and to take his place.  She is pitching the evil deed to him as a test of his masculinity. 

            When Macbeth says, “Who dares do more is none,” it’s more interesting to read it as a moral commentary:  “I dare do all that may become a man.  Anyone who dares to do more than I is no longer a man.”  Macbeth is telling his wife that exaggerated masculinity is not actually masculinity at all – in fact, it makes you less of a man.

            Macbeth and Shakespeare are right.  Trying to be too much the man makes you no man at all.  Football suffers from exactly this hyper-masculine denigration of true masculinity.

            However, it is worth noting that in the end, Macbeth murders Duncan.  Lies and deception are strong and have their own gravity; they pull us toward them.  Be a man of character: drop football.  Stop playing, stop watching, and be a man.