Lent Day 25: And now for something completely different

Mary tells me that my blog has been too serious as of late. I can't disagree, I remember several weeks ago when I wrote a funny blog about the damage that toddlers do to their parents and it was funny and a lot of people liked it. At that point in time I was planning on doing a funny blog every Monday. The problem with that is that I am only funny in the moment, planned funny isn't so much my thing. But Mary told me I needed something a little lighthearted, so here we go.

Way back when, in 1998, I was a student at Anderson University, and for the briefest of time, about a semester, I was a Pre-med major. I had excelled at Science in Junior High and High School and when I took Anatomy and Physiology my Senior Year I was neck and neck for the highest grade. I loved everything about the particulars of the human body that I was learning about. I sliced and diced my dead cat with precision and glee.

While I came to AU with the idea of going into politics [I never wanted to be king, but being a kingmaker did appeal to my young ego] I had moved on to other, previous, pursuits. So I found myself taking Chemistry and Biology in Hartung Hall. Down one of the hallways there were several animal cages and among them was a bearded dragon that was named Charlie.

Charlie became my confidant, I would often find myself in Hartung at odd hours when classes didn't seem to be going on and I would chat with my little dragon friend. In case you were wondering, no Charlie did not talk back, the conversations were decidedly one-sided [much like my sermons]. Now, to be honest while I loved Anatomy and Physiology and was pretty decent in Chemistry I have never been much of a Natural Biology kind of guy. All the memorization and classification just isn't my thing, and to this day I have no idea why you have to now the inner workings of an earthworm in order to fix a human heart or prescribe insulin, but whatever. It was a tough semester in Biology and Charlie helped me through some hard times and some hard decisions.

What seems to be remembered as a short time later, but was actually two years, I had moved on from Pre-med to History and Philosophy, because that is where people in the midst of an existential crisis go; and getting a minor in Christian Ministries, mainly because I had taken so many side CMIN [sound that out for a laugh] classes that I only needed one more for a minor, when lo and behold I found myself once again on the high floors of Hartung Hall. One day following a class where we had two guests who spoke about their brother having Alzheimer's I decided it was high time to visit Charlie again. I walked down the stairs and started to move toward Charlie's home, when to my horror I learned that Charlie was no longer a guest of Anderson University.

I don't know what happened to my bearded friend, I like to think that he broke out and is roaming the Florida swamp lands or the Arizona desert [I am not quite sure which habitat Charlie would have liked, I told you I wasn't very good at natural Biology]. I went back to my dorm that afternoon and wrote the following song about my friend. I hope that somehow he might be able to Google me and locate this blog and know that the once skinny kid still remembers him.

Charlie

Charlie
Why do you sit there
Doing nothing but staring back at me
Charlie
Why do you eat that bug
That is crawling around on the ground

Charlie
Your life is so simple sometimes
Sometimes I envy you

Charlie
Why do you sit there
Wagging your tail back and forth
Charlie
Why do you stare at me
With those eyes bugging out at me

Charlie
In the scheme of things
I wish that I could be you

Charlie
Do you ever think about me
And the way the world works
Charlie
Do you ever wonder
Why we all walk back and forth

Charlie
Can you understand
The awe you inspire in me

Cause I can see clearly now
With you sitting there
I can see clearly now
With the light bearing down on you
I can see clearly now
Can you see clearly too?

Peace and Love,

Pastor K