Compelled to ponder

As I approach the end of February every year, I come to a major intersection in my Bible reading schedule. Yesterday I completed the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are not light easy reading. The two months I spend on them every year, I consider time well spent. I am so glad that we have this written record of the trek of man from the garden of Eden to the entrance to the promised land. Having arrived at this point I feel the call to ponder some of the great (?) odd questions of life. To give my mind a rest from the common stress and find new things to stress about.

For example, I may find myself pondering a compelling question such as whether I am supposed to throw away the top cotton ball in the jar of cotton balls, or whether a turtle is naked or homeless if he loses his shell. I guess as long as I just ask those questions as a break for my mind, they can be healthy. If I stress out over finding the answers, I need counseling. Language is an amazing thing. Jibberish can tell a story. The mind has the ability to sort the nonsense into something that makes sense. In the book “Through the looking glass and what Alice found there” by Lewis Carroll, we find the most famous of nonsense poems: “Jabberwocky”. In the paragraph following the poem, Alice makes the following statement:
"... It seems to fill my head with ideas -- only I don't know exactly what they are."
I have always enjoyed classical nonsense literature from Lewis Carroll such as “The Walrus and the Carpenter” and “Jabberwocky.” Most people just roll their eyes and pass it by but I find some good mind exercise in finding a way to apply it all to basic biblical truth. Here is Jabberwocky:

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.


"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!"


He took his vorpal sword in hand:

Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,

And stood awhile in thought


And as in uffish thought he stood,

The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

And burbled as it came!


One, two! One, two! and through and through

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head

He went galumphing back.


"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?

Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"

He chortled in his joy.


'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

It’s later in this book that Alice meets Humpty Dumpty. Now there’s the guy to explain this. A terrible fall like Humpty had could cause all kinds of jumbled thinking. What was he doing on the dangerous wall anyway? What could the horses possibly do to put him together? Perhaps by tonight I’ll have the answers to all these questions.