A FEW HAVE ASKED, "Where were you trying to go with that Anthropo-whatever-ism post?

Who knows? My mind tends to wander and wonder. Let me quickly add in the wonderful words of J.R.R. Tolkien, "All who wander are not lost."

It all started with just some thinking about that word: anthropomorphism. And that lead to thinking about how it is so apparent and powerful in our everyday lives. Take the timelessness of Mother Goose for example:

THE CAT AND THE FIDDLE

Hey diddle, diddle!
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.

I hope you are not plagued with that literal-minded curse that causes people to scoff at a fiddle-playing cat and a dish and spoon growing arms and hands and legs so they can run away together.

I couldn't resist adding a few photos of Karlee and me, under the guise of showing just how engaging the old Mother and her words can be even for a precocious four year-old in the 21st century. Just look at the enchantment. Remember, this is not a tablet we're looking at, it's a book. There are very few pictures, only illustrations, and black and white at that.

There is just something that is compelling about those melodramatic three little kittens who lost their mittens?

And anthropomorphism isn't just for kids and kids at heart. Remember how we were first enticed to taste a Twinkie®?

And then when we needed relief, we knew that we could trust our little friend Speedy®.

See, isn't anthropomorphism fun? And I didn't even slide into theology this time. Oh, but the places we could go!

Here are some things we know for sure:

Dog goes woof, cat goes meow.
Bird goes tweet, and mouse goes squeak.
Cow goes moo. Frog goes croak, and the elephant goes toot.
Ducks say quack and fish go blub, and the seal goes OW OW OW.

We also know that owls are wise, lions are courageous, that Grover is lovable and furry. We also know that the fox is somehow foxy, sly, wily and crazy, all at the same time.

We know that some dogs can talk: Goofy, and some can't: Pluto.

Do we know that all of this is that wonderful stuff of storytelling called anthropomorphism?

The attribution of human form or other characteristics to anything other than a human being. Examples include depicting deities with human form and ascribing human emotions or motives to forces of nature, such as hurricanes or earthquakes.
Anthropomorphism has ancient roots as a literary device in storytelling, and also in art. Most cultures have traditional fables with anthropomorphised animals, which can stand or talk like humans, as characters. (Wikipedia)

Anthropomorphism can be fun and dangerous. It's fun as long as we're talking about Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Winnie-the-Pooh, or Big Bird. But when we start creating God in our own image, forgetting it was meant to be the other way around, the slope gets slippery fast. We do things like putting a vanity tag that says, "BLESSED" on the back of our Escalade, assuming Jesus wants all His children to drive Escalades. And worse yet, we start putting our words in His mouth, and He starts liking the things (and people) we like and hating the things (and people) we hate.

In the last post I mentioned the Daily Artifact poster exhibit. Here's one of those posters. It's constructed from a photo of "Jesus" with an appropriate hashtag.

So while the pharisees go blah, blah, blah, blah; and the
Dog goes woof, cat goes meow.
Bird goes tweet, and mouse goes squeak.
Cow goes moo. Frog goes croak, and the elephant goes toot.
Ducks say quack and fish go blub, and the seal goes OW OW OW.

There's one sound that no one knows...
WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY?

Check out this video that the Grand-Girls and I watch together every chance we get:

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A Little Help From Mother Goose

Anthropomorphizing

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