Memorable Passage

Growing up, we typically hear the same old nursery rhymes. The Cat in the Hat, Little Miss Muppet, and so on. I feel that these simple little rhymes give us little hints as to what the world is truly like. In his story book “Just So Stories”, Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem that I feel translates the ‘real’ world nicely.

‘I keep six honest serving-men

    (They taught me all I knew) ;

Their names are What and Why and When

      And How and Where and Who.

I send them over land and sea,

        I send them east and west ;

But after they have worked for me,

         I give them all a rest.

 

I let them rest from nine till five,

           For I am busy then,

As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea,

           For they are hungry men :

But different folk have different view ;

            I know a person small –
She keeps ten million serving-men,

          Who get no rest at all !

She send ‘em abroad on her own affairs,

           From the second she opens her eyes –

One million Hows, two million Wheres,

           And seven million Whys!’

The world is not always fair. Some people (the What and Why and When and How and Where and Who) get all the luck. They can lounge around, laughing and playing, while everyone else (the million Hows, two million Wheres, and seven million Whys) have to constantly work. To some people, everything just falls into their laps. They get what they want, when they want it. Then there are the others, who have to work for what they want, and maybe, just maybe, they might get it.