Favorite Inspirational Quotes

from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

“Father William”
After Southey

“You are old, Father William,” the young man said,
“And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head -
Do you think, at your age, it is right?”

“In my youth,” Father William replied to his son,
“I feared it might injure the brain;
But, now that I’m perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again.”

“You are old,” said the youth, “as I mentioned before,
And have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door -
Pray, what is the reason for that?”

“In my youth,” said the sage, as he shook his gray locks,
“I kept all my limbs very supple
By the use of this ointment - one shilling the box -
Allow me to sell you a couple?”

“You are old,” said the youth, “and your jaws are too weak
For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak -
Pray, how did you manage to do it?”

“In my youth,” said his father, “I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength which it gave to my jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life.”

“You are old,” said the youth, “one would hardly suppose
That your eye was as steady as ever;
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose -
What made you so awfully clever?”

“I have answered three questions and that is enough,”
Said his father, “don’t give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
Be off, or I’ll kick you downstairs!”

Lewis Carrol

This is a poem where a youth keeps pointing out to his father, or more precisely asking his father, how he can do certain things because he is obviously too old and, therefore, too infirm to be able to do what he is doing. What I don’t get is the youth denying what his own eyes see.

It’s cliche that young people have more open, flexible minds that can grasp new thoughts and ways of doing things better than an older adult who has become set in his ways. Yet here we have a youth that can’t grasp what’s right in front of him. I guess this is the power of labeling and beliefs about those labels.

Even though Father William is old, he can still stand on his head, do a back-somersault, eat real food and kick the kid downstairs. Perhaps a lot of that is because he no longer takes himself seriously or like Dyer says, he just forces his body to do things despite his supposed descent into infirmity.

Also throughout this poem, we learn that Father William has varied interests from athletic to studious. The way he meets these questions, both flippantly and serious at the same time, shows no decline in his mental abilities either.

Dyer takes all this as a signal to absolutely refuse to allow an old infirm man to enter his body. He also says we are to resist the impulses to label ourselves in any way that would limit us such as saying we are old and therefore can’t do things or that we are not good at something and can’t do it.

I think this poem is a good reminder that we should not let our cliches and beliefs blind us to what is really happening. That is what labeling does.

Tags: self help