This rhyme has variations that go back into different regions of Great Britain and as such was used to select an individual to do something that the rest of the group did not do. Depending on the task, a person might be selected immediately, or used as a process of elimination and the rhyme repeated over and over until one person was left. The rhyme was used as a selection process, and is still frequently used by children.
According to research the words 'eeny, meeny' were similar to the pronunciations of the numbers one and two in pre-English Celtic.
Recently, I saw this rhyme used in a television series, The Walking Dead, to determine who was going to be the recipient of a vicious beating by the new bad guy, Negen, who has shown up to create
Choice. A rhyme used to make a choice. Seems like a pretty arbitrary way to make a decision.
I watched another televison show tonight. The doctors in Grey's Anatomy had to make a life or death decision regarding who would survive a terrible train accident. The accident put a large pole through both the victims creating terrible, internal traumatic injuries. Only one would survive, but both were alive and talking, the pipe keeping the internals in place and preventing massive blood loss. Both had people who cared about them, wanting them to live.
The doctors did a variety of tests, took x-rays to survey the internal damage as best they could. They used logic to determine what would happen to each victim if they moved the pole. They weighed the odds of survival, knowing that one of these two individuals were going to die.
There are a lot of stories out there with great tension in them, the kind that we never forget because the ramifications of the decision are so profound. You may recall, from another movie, Signs, the protagonist's wife was alive pinned against a tree, but moving the object pinning her was going to kill her.
Life and death. Choices. A nursery rhyme to select a victim. Logic to select a survivor. Everyone has strong motivators to live.
We to do. In a preview for the upcoming movie, Life, one of the characters talks about surviving being the strongest motivator for living.
All this life and death, randomness, logic, will - it is hard to understand why some people live and why some people die. People find comfort in various philosophies to make sense of the chances of life versus death and find comfort in those philosophies when death makes no sense at all.
Therefore, I've come to the conclusion that for a person to give up living, their sense of survival has either been crushed or they have given life to someone else, perhaps out of love, self-sacrifice or something bigger that those of us living have no earthly clue about. It's hard enough to face death. I surely don't want to be responsible for someone else's if there is any earthly way I can avoid it.
I want my words to be kind or funny. Not the sort that crush a spirit. I don't want my bad mood to be the last thing someone already suffering has to deal with. There is an adage that goes something like, "Let my words be sweet because I may have to eat them tomorrow."
I've also come to the conclusion that at this point in my life it is far better to live than to die. It is better for me to make choices that impact that life and the quality with which I experience it. There are some things that are random. Some, not all. I need to do my best to control those things that I can and not make the excuse that it was some luck of the draw that...(end it with whatever excuse you want).
A seemingly fair, random nursery rhyme to make decisions may work for children. We, however, are adults.
Let's take responsibility for our lives and decisions and not blame the factors we can control. Let's speak kindness and love to all and be aware of those around us who are hurting. Let our words be as sweet as honey.
We all have that responsibility.