Humpty Dumpty: You're No Nursery Rhyme

I was musing about my childhood yesterday; I don't know why. As I did, I thought of the many stories that I was told that "had a point". Some were Bible stories; some were Aesop's Fables and some were just stories that were told, at which time, when teachers were through reading them, would say something like "We wouldn't want that to happen to us, right?"

As I became more of a writer and reader I found that many stories were actually political commentaries. "Alice in Wonderland", as well as "The Wizard of Oz" was apparently a social commentary.

C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were both writers who wrote Biblical allegory although Tolkien hated that assessment and chafed against it, additionally, Lewis wrote specific books which were certainly not allegorical.

Certainly, I thought to myself, there were stories that were just amusing. Finally, I hit upon a good example! Humpty Dumpty was about as apolitical as you could get. I mean an egg who decided to sit on a wall wasn't teaching one anything unless it was to stay off ledges. I actually felt pretty smug; a totally worthless story...the destruction of a careless egg didn't deserve observation!

As I lay me down to sleep that evening it started; my analytical and curious mind that had taken me to the depths of storytelling and back again began to nag at my psyche.

For example, was the story about suicide; had the king, his men and their horses not listened to Humpty until he was too far gone and then, of course, it was too late to repair him.

The story may have been about entering society the wrong way, you know "coming out of your shell" in a way so different that society can't accept you.

Perhaps it was just about bad eggs; either eggs that were bad in the grocery store with cracks or staying away from people in life that cause trouble.

Then it hit me; Humpty Dumpty represented a person who couldn't make up his mind and "sat on the fence" until his indecision was the ruin of him.

Finally, I visited Wikipedia and read all about Humpty. He represented a king, wars, a drink and was in Alice's Looking Glass, and so, so much more; so much for my childhood. It is no wonder that children take such a liking to politics.

I tried to think of a good nursery rhyme and all I could think of was,

Here is a rhyme,
for you in your youth.
It will help you someday,
to be very couth.

If you're strong as a lion,
but gentle as a dove.
You'll get extra notice,
from Him up above

If you have that,
you won't have to hedge,
from any type of a life's stories,
You'll have the Supreme Edge.