Everyone has some sort of general perspective on the world, be it gloom, doom and kaboom or sugar and spice and all things nice. It all depends on who you ask. So I trolled around for an interesting bunch of people and I thought – why not famous people named …. William, either real live ones, Williams who are now dead or fictional ones who live on? So here are some of their life lessons to learn or spurn.
William Shakespeare gave us many viewpoints about life for us to ponder.
“A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!” ① said King Richard on the battlefield, eager to get back into the fight despite having lost his nag to enemy fire. But Shakespeare’s words from King Richard’s mouth show a weakness for desperate heroics and impulsive decision making about money and horses. If King Rich really had traded his kingly realm in exchange for a horse, he would have been a destitute king without a kingdom, which is even worse than being a desperate horseman without a horse. Gambling everything on a horse is just too risky a strategy for a worthwhile life.
William Shatner is most famous for his role as Captain Kirk in the TV series Star Trek. He is less famous for his role as the alien “Big Giant Head” in “Third Rock from the Sun” ②
As Captain Kirk on the Starship Enterprise this William embraced the big picture of space-exploration and life with the mission statement:
“To boldly go where no one has gone before.”
This life goal is courageous and admirable in its own way. But for most of us mere mortals this is dreaming the impossible dream. Wherever I go, someone has always been there before, leaving behind their graffiti, dropped cigarette butts and takeaway coffee cups as proof. However it must be noted that most dogs cheerfully follow the Star Trek plan for life of going boldly, with wagging tails and lolling tongues, where no one has gone before, and it works well for them. For instance dogs happily tread where no one has trod before and immortalize their doggy paw prints in the wet concrete of a new footpath, driveway or civic monument.
William the Conqueror, as his name suggests, saw his aim in life as winning at all costs. Wars, running races with his grandchildren, pork pie eating contests, he was driven to conquer all opposition.
He defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, after someone shot King H in the eye with an arrow, which was very unsportsmanlike I would have thought. ③ But William the Conqueror was not concerned with civility. He then headed towards London, as all tourists eventually do, even if they were booked on a tour of Wales. He took the scenic route and conquered all sorts of places on the tourist map such as Dover, where he wanted to climb and conquer the white cliffs. Then it was on to Canterbury where he was keen to visit The King’s School (established in 597), hoping to learn a thing or two about how to be a king, since he was about to become one.
He then conquered Southwark in South London so he could make a quick visit to the Imperial War Museum where he had been invited to give a public lecture on how to win wars.
The legendary Swiss hero, mountain climber and marksman William Tell had a very simple philosophy.
“The man that’s over-cautious will do little”
said William T. according to F. Schiller’s dramatization of his legendary life (Act 3, Scene 1).
It’s true, there are always at least 12 sides to most issues, and thinking about them all and giving each one a score out of 10 like in a dog judging competition and combining the best features of each is very time-consuming and tiring. Any subsequent plan of action may become buried under a pile of cautious cost-benefit analyses, compliance reports and executive summaries.
William T did not bother with any of that. He just did it, whatever it was, including shooting an apple off the top of his own son’s head with a crossbow, to save them both from execution.④ Man of action was William T, who seemed ever ready to take the plunge or grasp the nettle, or do both at once.
If thinking bores you and you like action, William Tell is the one to follow.
But let’s finish these “William’s ways” with the much more thoughtful William Wilberforce who not only thought and prayed long and hard about how to abolish slavery in the British Empire but who also took the bull by the horns for decades to achieve his aims through parliament. One of his probing questions can be used as a template to guide us in many other situations of entrenched evil or habitual self-indulgence.
“Does anyone suppose a slave trade will help civilization?” asked William W. ⑤
Just substitute some unjustifiable attitude or action for “slave trade” and you have a powerful guide for life.
For instance, “Does anyone suppose drone delivery of fried chicken will help civilization?”
Notice the power of William W’s question. Through this lens, the chicken delivered by drone idea doesn’t have a (chicken) leg to stand on.
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© Geoff Milton 2023
① (Richard III, Act 5, Scene 4)
② Wikipedia “William Shatner”
③ Wikipedia “Battle of Hastings”
④ Wikipedia “William Tell”
⑤William Wilberforce speech in Parliament 1789 (see Gale Primary Sources – Wilberforce and the Team that ‘Bowled Out Slavery’)
