Life is an Occasion

I went home this weekend, and my family watched Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. I had just finished reading King Lear and it was fresh in my mind. During the scene when Mr. Magorium is speaking to Mahoney, declaring that he is going to "depart", and pass away, he refers to King Lear. Here is the scene:

My favorite line from this speech is after his relating of King Lear's death, he tells Mahoney, "Your life is an occasion. Rise to it."

That really made me think about how despite all his best efforts, King Lear doesn't really fully rise to the occasion of his life. He is blinded to the truth about his family, and his one loving and loyal daughter is the one he turns out and who eventually dies. He eventually goes mad and dies himself, because of grief. Magorium in this clip says that he is sad when the play says that King Lear dies, not because of the actual death, but because of the life before that. King Lear's life is so tragic because he is fighting so hard for the love of his children, and ultimately turns away the one person who loves him most.