To Be or Not to Be? To Ser or Estar?

In English, we have one verb, "to be," to express our state of being.  Spanish uses two different verbs which results in much confusion for speakers of English.  Our English verb, to be, has the forms am, are, is, and if I were smart enough yet to make a table, I would set them up in classic form for you.  I'll get there, someday, but not right now.  In the meantime, let me keep this just about the verb "to be."

Spanish is rooted in Latin which had two verbs, essere and estare, and Spanish has continued with that in estar and ser.  The Latin verb essere is to exist, and think of our English noun, essence; the Latin verb estare is to stand.  Many teachers of Spanish have chosen to say that ser means permanent and estar means both temporary and location and I used that for a number of years but, it can lead to errors.  The better definition that I like is that ser is the whatness of something, or someone, and estar is the howness of something or someone.