A Lifetime of Books – Musings (3)

I’m looking at Green Eggs and Ham, and also at A Fly Went By. These are keepers. I’m not keeping them for kids that might visit us, I’m keeping them for me. Oh I guess if we don’t have kids visit that I might have to borrow or rent a kid now and then so that I can read them aloud, but the truth is that I’ll get more pleasure reading them than any child will get listening to them.

Many folks are familiar with Green Eggs and Ham, especially on Saint Patrick’s Day, or annual days that celebrate reading in school. It could be a manual for sales, marketing, evangelism; it could be an example of the delight we can find when we try new things…even green eggs and ham. The eggs were still eggs, the ham was still ham – I don’t imagine they tasted any different than usual eggs and ham…but then again, maybe they did. Once one of the cola companies came out with a “clear” cola – it flopped…looks matter when it comes to food and drink.

Green Eggs and Ham is an example of persistence and of continually seeking new avenues of communication – what is the best way to deliver the message of green eggs and ham? On a boat? With a goat? In the rain? On a train? In a tree? In a car? In a box? With a fox? In a house? With a mouse? We must not dilute the content of the message, and not confuse the method of delivery with content – and if our content is clear, such as in Green Eggs and Ham, then those to whom we are communicating will hopefully understand both the content and the response that is required of them.  

Well, I am going to close for now and pick up A Fly Went By in a future post. In the meantime I think I’ll drive over to the seminary library and research an ancient Ugaritic text that has much the same message, some of the text is obscure since we only have fragments, but I’m told that there are similar Hittite and Egyptian and Babylonian stories – and that similar stories also exist in the hollows of the Blue Ridge.

Too bad the professing church doesn’t have the passion of Sam-I-am in sharing the Gospel; come to think of it…I’d better look in the mirror.