The Old Man's Comforts...
The Old Man's Comforts and how he gained them
by Robert Southey
You are old, Father William, the young man
cried,
The few locks which are left you are grey;
You are
hale, Father William, a hearty old man,
Now tell me the reason
I pray.
In the days of my youth, Father William
replied,
I remember'd that youth would fly fast,
And
abused not my health and my vigour at first
That I never might
need them at last.
You are old, Father William, the young man
cried,
And pleasures with youth pass away,
And yet you
lament not the days that are gone,
Now tell me the reason I
pray.
In the days of my youth, Father William
replied,
I remember'd that youth could not last;
I thought
of the future whatever I did,
That I never might grieve for the
past.
You are old, Father William, the young man
cried,
And life must be hastening away;
You are chearful,
and love to converse upon death!
Now tell me the reason I pray.
I am chearful, young man, Father William
replied,
Let the cause thy attention engage;
In the days
of my youth I remember'd my God!
And He hath not forgotten my
age.
"Adults’ relationships with the old are frequently characterized by ambivalence: many scorn the idea that there is anything to be learned from those whose hair is so laughably scarce or lacking melanin. After all, old age is not always healthy or wise, and the not-yet-old may want or resent what the old have and they lack – most obviously in terms of resources and wealth. Instead of acknowledging the mixture of their motives, or questioning the values that shape them, Beauvoir claims that many adult children do their best to make their parents ‘aware of [their] deficiencies and blunders so that the old [person] will hand over the running of his affairs, give up advising him and submit to a passive role’."
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My own youth was the candle burned at both ends while escaping inevitable depression (the name of this blog) While success was achieved, a price to pay by the morals infused by a Catholic education played hell with my nerve and will to succeed An eighty-six year old friend, a catholic bishop, told me while steeped in dementia about the advantages of humility - something my personality finds a foe They both laugh together the foe and The Old Man
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