Wednesday, September 1, 2021

Pushmi-Pullyu


In “The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle” by Hugh Lofting, the good doctor collected a menagerie in Africa to put on display back in England.  The book was a fantasy written for children (winning the 1923 Newbery Medal for best work of children's literature) and chapter 10 featured the Pushmi-Pullyu.  It was a two-headed creature related, in its own words, “to the Abyssinian Gazelles and the Asiatic Chamois - on my mother's side.  My father's great-grandfather was the last of the Unicorns.”  They were hard to capture, because one head kept watch while the other slept.  One head could eat while the other talked so as not to be rude.  How considerate.  Can you imagine what happened when it had a disagreement with itself?!  Sounds like some people that I know.  James said in James 1:8, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”  James could have  talking about the Pushmi-Pullyu.  A double-minded man could refer to a man who can’t make up his mind.  Or it could refer to am man who lives a secret life - he is one way on the outside, but evil within.  Either way, James calls them unstable.  Hey, I don’t want to be unstable, do you?  Then be decisive and truthful.  Don’t be double-minded like a Pushmi-Pullyu.

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