Humpty Dumpty made his appearance as a riddle of
the late 18th century. His
presence has graced virtually every literary idea-push from Mother Goose fairy
tales to edgy political satire. Alice (of
the Looking Glass in Wonderland) has a conversation with Dumpty, the talking
egg:
"I don't know what you mean by
'glory,' " Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of
course you don't—till I tell you. I
meant 'there's a nice knock-down argument for you!'"
"But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-down
argument'," Alice objected.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty
said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to
mean—neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice,
"whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty,
"which is to be master—that's all."
Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so
after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. "They've a temper, some of
them—particularly verbs, they're the proudest—adjectives you can do anything
with, but not verbs—however, I can manage the whole lot!
Impenetrability! That's what I say!"
The riddle of The Dumpty is much
too dark for children, and therein lies the point; we can be as imperceptible as
we wish, skewing the meaning (and therefore the intent) of our words. Jesus says that’s too dark and evil for a
believer. A simple yes
or no is clear, unmistakable, and wholesome. And that is rather the Godly point. To be any different than Thou shalt not,
or thou shalt, when it comes to what thou dost…crosses the boundaries
of love. And, for Christ, that is the
utmost concern…because it is the benchmark of Godly character. To deceive, even with a so-called child’s
riddle, is to be Satan’s offspring.
In our contemporary culture truth, unvarnished
and untarnished, is just as uncomplicated (and uncommon) as it’s always been. From interpreting economic forecasts to
explaining a new law’s intent and purpose, politicians have danced with truth as
you would dance with molecules of Coronavirus, just as far from being pinned
with your words as possible. The shade
of darkness of Sir Humpty’s word-penetrability is directly proportionate to
what’s at stake for the dissembler.
The most telling illustration of this in my
memory is from 1998, when the Grand Jury asked President Bill Clinton if there
was any improper relationship between himself and staffer Monica Lewinsky. The president’s Dumpty moment
surfaced when he responded: It
depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.[1]
For You Today
There are about 2,000 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions
library. To dig deeper on
today’s topic, explore some of these:
Of State Dinners and Spies and Diverse - and Dying
Images: Title Via Wikimedia Commons Images without
citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.
Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
