Old Father William

Curiouser and Curiouser!

I found myself awake last night, eyes pinned towards the window, watching the evening unfold, contemplating things. The night was incredibly beautiful; the streetlights and stars emitted eerie lights, repercussions of a day that once was an warning of a coming dawn.

I do sincerely love the night. I was once a nocturnal creature; last night carried warm memories of diners that never close and walks under the glossy spectacle of stars.

I thought about things, oh so many wonderful and frightening and trivial things. Mind you, unimportant things. Temporary things. Things one can build a whole life, a whole existence on--in other words, a bunch of cumulative, menial, unimportant tasks that are expounded and dissected by the human race in such brutality that they add up to something that is, indeed, important and meaningful.

We are all too frequently told to spend more money, to 'live laugh and love' more. There is a mediated sense of fulfillment and happiness we meet every time we listen to the radio or turn on the television. Why has happiness become so distorted? It's as if society is addicted to happiness and unwilling to accept otherwise, so constantly, we are bent on exploring that through music and production. And in this mediated process, happiness itself has become overlooked. We have succeeded in assimilating ourselves to the masses, shutting our mouths, ears, and eyes only to settle for something that is ephemeral and material.

Let's consider some Lewis Carrol:

"You are old, Father William," the young man said
"And your hair has become very white.
Yet you incessantly stand on your head;
Do you think, at your age, that is right?"

"In my youth," Father William replied to his son,
"I feared I might injure the brain.
But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none
Why, I do it again and again!"
-From Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland

Silly Father William! How he stands on his head and somersaults out the door, despite his age!

Do you see the difference between Father William and his son?

Father William revels in experience, regardless of what his son thinks. I think there's some latent meaning in Carrol's little ditty. Who cares what others think? Regardless of what is 'considered' right, why do we listen to authority and media instead of doing as we inwardly think?

I write this,

for the conformity of happiness nowadays.

Revel in your experiences, in those fantastical things that made you so very happy before time and space were even objects of consideration, before we cared about how we acted and dressed and spoke. There is beauty and happiness all around us, and yes, these things are not things to be sought or bought--these things are as they are. There is beauty and happiness in nature, in others, in everyday life, in oversimplified little things that we so often take for granted.

Thanks, Father William, I am going to go stand on my head!