then there's the moon...

We were reading "Yertle the Turtle" today (a short work by Dr. Seuss--we were using it to discuss the concept of problem/resolution in literature). To catch you all up, it's about King Yertle the Turtle who is discontent with ruling the turtles in his pond. He stands on top of 9 turtles, and claims ownership of a farm with a cow and a mule. Discontent with that, he makes 200 turtles stand in a stack so he can be higher than everyone, and he sits on top ruling everything he can see…

Then he sees the moon. Angered that something is above him, he summons more turtles to make his throne higher. 

This is where I paused the story and my class began to talk. What was the problem? What could happen? How do you think the problem will be resolved?

Amid the conversation, a voice piped up. "When he tries to be higher than heaven he won't be able to go any farther, because he will run into Jesus!" 

"Oh yes," I said. "He would definitely have to stop when he ran into Jesus." There you have it--the solution Dr. Seuss never discovered, neatly summarized by a 6 year old orphan sitting criss-cross on my alphabet carpet. Pathetically literal, pure genius.

Let me file that one for next time I see the moon. Big men, little people, all are the same… we take as much power as we're given; we try to get more; we all stop when we run into Jesus.