Puzzling Bumper Sticker

There are a lot of bumper stickers that, even when I'm close enough to read the small print, do not make sense to me. I'm not talking about the ones where I wonder why on earth anybody espouses that particular philosophy, wants the world to know what a jerk they are, or wants the cops to know how much they favor speeding. At least those express a clear thought. Stupid, but clear. No, I'm talking about those which fail to communicate whatever they're trying to say.

I find a couple categories of puzzling bumper stickers. The first is the kind that communicates only to those of the same "in group". You have to be in the same church or club or watch the same TV show or something before you know what they say. Recognizing the type, I don't need to worry about what they're saying, because they're not saying it to me. "Beam me up Scotty" is an example, perfectly clear to anybody who's watched the original "Star Trek". "WELS" is meaningful within a particular church.

The other category is the bumper sticker that somehow misses the mark, fails to communicate its idea clearly. Occasionally it may be a spillover from category 1. I saw one recently that makes me unsure of which category to place it in: 2 for sure, but 1 also?

It starts out promisingly enough. The text reads, "Relax. God is in Charge." Now you can agree or disagree with that, depending on your personal beliefs and philosophy. Do you believe in God? Do you believe that means you sit back and relax, or lean towards that old adage that the gods help those that help themselves, and get out there, unrelaxed, and keep working? Agree or not, the message is still clear. It could/should have stopped there.

But of course it didn't, or I wouldn't be blogging about it. They added graphics, and that's what muddies up the message. There are pictures of two penguins and a fish on the bumper sticker. Suddenly all kinds of questions pop up.

Let's start with just which of them, exactly, are we supposed to empathize with, the fish or one or both penguins? The picture shows two predators and one prey animal. Are we supposed to put ourselves in the place of the fish, surely about to get eaten, and just relax because God's gonna take care of it? Somehow I don't find that a reassuring message.

Or do we empathize with one of the penguins, thinking they're about to be provided dinner? But again, there's a problem here with the message. There are two penguins looking at a potential meal that's only gonna feed one of them. Fish are not that easily cut in half by bird bills and shared. They tend to get swallowed whole unless they meet something with very sharp teeth. This means one full, fed penguin, one hungry penguin. Do we think the message is a comfort to the about-to-be-fed bird, that God is providing the meal? God says you get to eat while your neighbor starves, buddy. Or to the hungry bird, saying God is gonna dangle this meal in front of your face and then snatch it away, teasing you? But it's OK because it's God doing it? Relax, you're supposed to starve. Or perhaps, even, if you relax you will starve?

Any way you think of it, the message is not one I want to buy into.

All that comes from putting this bumper sticker into category 2. But perhaps it's category 1, and there's some in-crowd, behind-the-message special knowledge which makes the whole thing make sense. If so, and somebody out there knows what it is, please let me know.

Otherwise I'm just going with my original assumption, that there's a whole lot of stupid out there.