Advice from Shakespeare, and Miss Daisy, for crossing our political divide

Sometimes we must practice tolerance of those who don't see things the way we do

What lessons would the Bard of Avon offer for our current political divide?

People have always learned important life lessons from theater. Take the plays of Shakespeare, for example. The moral of Romeo & Juliet is clearly that nothing good can come of hatred; Macbeth is chilling in its lesson that danger and darkness lie in deep ambition. Julius Caesar? Careful how you wield power (and who you choose as friends).

Good advice for contemporary politics in all that, right? But those stories are filled with nuance, which is often missing in contemporary movies and TV shows. The exploits of comic book superheroes and their progeny tend more toward good-versus-evil scenarios than either our lived experience or the creations of Shakespeare. But we all draw inspiration and behavior cues from what we see on screens, whether it’s The Bachelorette or The Power of the Dog or The Great British Baking Show.

Like what I learned 30 years ago from a line delivered …