Feeling Humbuggerish
Do you ever feel humbuggerish? Strictly speaking there’s no such word. The noun humbug has one of a number of meanings but I refer to it here by this meaning: nonsense. I use humbuggerish here as a more colloquial slang. My way to describe a feeling, more than say, the name of a thing.
One of my favourite Children’s Books is “Kickle Snifters and Other Fearsome Critters” by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Glen Rounds. It’s a doozey! “Would you know a timberdoodle if you saw one? Or a lafferlang? Or a triperdero?”
The HugagÂ
My most favourite critter of all though, is the Hugag. To paraphrase Schwartz, “The Hugag has no knees. Because of this it can’t sit or lie down (Keep your legs stiff and you’ll see what a problem this is). When a Hugag sleeps, it must lean against a tree or a house or a fence. But it’s too big and so heavy it causes whatever it leans against to bend. If you see a tree or a house or a fence that leans to one side, a Hugug slept there.”
I think New Zealand must be the unofficial home of nomadic Hugags because there are inordinate number of lean-to’s in the country. Not to mention everywhere in between. A lean-to is a building with its roof leaning against a larger building or a wall.
That’s the official party line of course but I suspect it’s meant to hide the fact there are quite alot more Hugags dossed up in a hut (temporary bush shelter or any rough and ready bush hut) than we know about or that we’ve been told about.
Explaining Humbuggerishness
So why am I humbuggerish? I get this way when I’m inside an idea that needs to come out and the expression of that idea seems to elude me. Well, not entirely. Just right now! I know I won’t always feel this way but this is the place where the pieces in the puzzle just don’t fit together as well as I’d like.
Hence the frustration of feeling humbuggerish. It’s the sense of not being able to find a way forward. It’s also why I love the Hugag, I can commiserate with his plight. Can’t sit, can’t lie down! It’s an absolute bugger! Is the way with the creative, there’s a compulsion to get it. To put the puzzle together sooner rather than later.
Looking out into the backyard the backshed seems to have a lean on it. Look at that! Visited by a Hugag and I never even noticed till now. Come to think of it, when did I sleep last and where?
