I just posted a song that I wrote a year or two ago.
When I first moved to Lacey, I met a person named Kahlei (is that the spelling?), and it made me think of the Lewis Caroll poem “Jabberwocky”.
I thought it might be fun to turn that poem into a song for children, but I had forgotten that it features a beheading.
As someone who has gone through Jungian therapy, I can appreciate the symbolism of decapitating a monster. But as someone who knows children are still developing their capacity for figurative thinking, I wondered if it was an appropriate subject matter for kids.
So I decided to rethink Caroll’s world a bit. His poem addresses bravery, and making a parent proud through skill and decisive action.
In my rethinking, the child’s bravery comes in forming his own opinion instead of automatically accepting the prejudices of his father. The child’s decisive action comes in the form of whole-heartedly accepting another person. And the father’s pride comes from knowing that his child is developing the ability to see the truth with his own eyes.