It’s been a week, a really long week, even though there were only three work days in this week for me…..but my weekend is here and I sort of feel like this fern frond coming out from its curled up ball.
The weekend will be better.
On the flip side, for some reason this little frond also reminds me of the Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland. It just needs a hookah pipe and a puff of smoke.
So take your pick….
‘Keep your temper,’ said the Caterpillar…..[it’s been a difficult week to do so for me….a really really difficult week from a temper perspective…]
And then a memory floods out.
Repeat, “You are old Father William” said the Caterpillar.
Alice folded her hands, and began: —
“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 of that?”
“In my youth,” said the sage, as he shook his grey 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 down stairs!”
Lewis Carroll – 1865
My Grandma had a book of poetry that she loved and, when I was a little girl, she would recite this poem to me. I loved it and, when I was older, she gave me the book, I still have it, and it is very, very old.
I memorized this poem because I loved it so much. In drama class in junior high school we were tasked with a number of assignments, a monologue was one of them, a poem recitation was another.
I chose Father William.
All these years later, I can almost still get through the entire poem by memory.
All that from a photo of a fern frond.
And that’s my brain.
