Thursday, July 12, 2012


Curious... as in inquisitive or peculiar


The 'Rum Tum Tugger,'  the main character of a poem written by T.S. Elliot and made famous in the Broadway production CATS by Andrew Lloyd Webber is a curious cat constantly longing and craving for the opposite or for something other than what he already had or was offered.  This curious cat seems to be suffering from the 'greener grass on the other side of the fence' syndrome.  And as the poem explains "there isn't any call to shout it, because the curious cat will do as he do do, and there's no doing anything about it."

In so many ways the Rum Tum Tugger is good portrayal of humanity. No matter what we have, we are seldom satisfied. If we have straight hair, we curl it. If it is curly, we relax it. If we are short, we wish we were tall, the tall ones are dying to be short or shorter, and so on. We spend our lives chasing after the wind only to find that even after attaining that precious thing we so desired, it does not make good on its promised satisfaction.  Solomon, the wise preacher, warned us about this enigma.  He said: fame won't satisfy you, money won't, friends & family won't, a job won't... actually nothing will.  Yet, ironically enough, each generation again ups and repeats the same struggle.
The Rum Tum Tugger poem has posed the challenge of elusive satisfaction to us again.  So what can we do? Is this all there is to life? Not at all! There is One Who can break this 'dog [or cat] chasing its tail cycle' -- GOD!  He is the only One big enough to satisfy our every desire, our every craving and our every aspiration in life. With God, the sun will rise in our lives making us curious Rum Tum Tuggers instead of curious Rum Tum Tuggers.

AAH Director

2 comments:

  1. perhaps you are reading too much into the poem. the poem is about a cat. i think ts eliott intended the poem to be a comment on FElINE behavior, and only the behavior of some cats at that. (there is such a thing as a contented cat. not all cats manifest the inquisitive, exaggerated, discontented characteristics of the rum tum tugger.) the rum tum tugger displays an exaggerated version of common feline behaviors (wanting to be let in after being let out, sleeping in cozy places like dresser drawers, being finicky about food, etc.). but these are feline behaviors, not necessarily human behaviors. we are jumping to conclusions if we think of the rum tum tugger's behavior as analogous to some generalized conception of the HUMAN condition. sometimes a cat is only a cat.

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