Hungry Hungry Hippos

an essay on what it means to be Good and the need for indiscriminate love

By: Alex Gallagher-Alava

This article is part of the Claritas fall 2024 issue, Margins. Read the full print release here.

A tense situation unfolds before our eyes as four old friends converge at a watering hole. My finger rests anxiously on the trigger as I scan my surroundings, each of my peers doing the same, all of us terrified of what it might mean to make the first move. Any movement could be costly, but hesitation would all but guarantee demise. Little time is given to ponder the gravity of it all before the introduction of a fine selection of plastic spheres ignites rapid action, each party jumping to seize a moment all too fleeting. The ‘plink’ of the first marble is followed by the roar of a terrible chorus as all four fingers come crashing down on the vile machines they operate. A zero-sum game unfolds before us where victory is synonymous with survival.

Thus goes the game of Hungry Hungry Hippos: a cult classic in the Gallagher-Alava household.

Truly, these colorful plastic hippos arranged evenly around a circular board should learn a lesson in humility, and perhaps be forced to practice exercises in compassion. After all, there are more than enough marbles to go around, no matter how hungry these hippos claim to be. If each beast simply took a few minutes to hear out each of his peers, surely some kind of agreement could be reached and rules-based order achieved. Perhaps they could even discover some alternative means of acquiring sustenance, one which did not require the frantic chasing of their prey. With a reliable source of food established, the hippos would be on their way to developing increasingly complex societies based on social cohesion and trade, with hippo tribes giving way to hippo kingdoms giving way to hippo democracies. Soon these Hungry Hungry Hippos may even find themselves among the stars, escaping the confines of their finite watering hole and reaching heights that they could never have conceived.

Unfortunately for our semi-aquatic mammalian friends, this glorious dream is out of reach. Each hippo—Henry Hippo, Homer Hippo, Harry Hippo, and Happy Hippo (originally Lizzie Hippo, our pink and only female friend having been victim to an unsavory retcon, #FreeLizzie)—is too caught up in its own primal desires to consider any notion besides that of incessant consumption. [1] As an old commercial for the game sings:

“It's a race, it's a chase, hurry up and feed their face!

Who will win? No one knows! Feed the hungry hip-ip-pos!

Hungry hungry hippos! (open up and there it goes!)” [2]

Their gluttony is palpable. Yet can we blame them? Are these playful caricatures of such enormous creatures (quite terrifying ones at that, being the “deadliest large land mammal on the planet,” do not get in between a hippo and his marble) even capable of feeling shame? [3] [4]

The answer is no. However, we are.

Unlike our greedy gang of four, we can be better than that. We have been better than that. And frankly, we must be better than that.

One can’t quite blame a hippo for its nature. Every living creature on this Earth lives in the context of continuing its own existence, with millions of years of biological reality having thoroughly ingrained in its flesh the pursuits of food, sex, and anything else relevant to the endless marathon of genetic survival. A fox is not evil for killing my chicken, nor is a locust malicious when it spoils my crop. Each is simply following its nature, without the means for choosing any alternative.

But we are different. “God created man in his own image,” reads the Biblical book of Genesis. [5] 

Wow! Created in his own image! Lucky us! Hasta la vista, Hungry Hungry Hippos!

One might read the above and call it a day, prideful of our elevated status and pitiful of the Godless hippos and their pointless existence. 

But, as Spiderman learned in 1962, “with great power comes great responsibility.” [6]

These are certainly wise words for anyone. Yet for Christians, they carry deeper meaning.

As previously mentioned, we as humans are uniquely positioned to rise above our primal selves. Armed with our divinely inspired Spirit, we are able to escape the confines of our Flesh. Capitalized nouns aside, the notion is not particularly esoteric, and in fact finds itself directly in Galatians 5:17: “for the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh.” [7] Evidently, we should “walk by the Spirit, and [not] gratify the desires of the flesh.” [8] 

But in practice it is not so simple. The conflict between the two is ancient and ultimately what makes us uniquely human. While it is comforting to know that we have been equipped with the means to be Good, we have simultaneously been equipped with the capacity to be Evil, as each exists in relation to the other. 

An anonymous author on a Catholic news board puts it nicely:

“Evil is not something in itself, but a lack of something that should be present, e.g. a lie lacks in truth. God does not create evil since it is not a thing to be created. Evil is an imperfection, lack or void in God's creation.” [9]

Perhaps with this our Hippo friends have been absolved. An animal, lacking the capacity for Good, cannot be Evil; but you and I, with our ability to cling to values and virtues amidst the tension wrought by our flesh, must actively affirm our Goodness lest we unknowingly sink to Evil. To be Good is to abate our physical desires to uphold our spiritual being. To be Evil is to succumb to the temptation of the self and thus neglect the due reverence of virtue. If a bear, acting out of its own self interest, mauls a person, there is nothing much to be said about its morality. If you or I, acting out of our own self interest, maul a person, much can be said about the matter. Curious!

Unlike the bear, we have been called to a higher level of understanding which allows us to act with intention beyond our individual benefit, and to hold values as greater than our individual self– this is the core of Goodness! But what values does Goodness actually entail?

For Christians, the matter is straightforward. Scripture provides a detailed account of Christ and his teachings, the very Godliness we seek to embody. Simpler still, Church tradition provides a summarized sevenfold set of sins to avoid committing. Finally, at the very core of it all, is the central point of Christ and his selfless sacrifice: Love. [11]

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” [12]

The verse has been a fan favorite for over a millennium, but what is it really getting at? Unfortunately for us, our commitment to Goodness just got harder. In it, Christ gets at perhaps the most critical requirement to truly embrace Love: to uphold it over our own personal desires. It is frustrating to have enemies and enraging to be persecuted, but if we only love those who treat us well, what kind of love is that? To put it quite bluntly, “if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” [13]

To only love when it is convenient is not to believe in love at all, but rather one’s self. It is to be incapable of upholding the Spirit over the Flesh; it is to succumb to the Evil of selfish desire. The man who is selective with who he considers worthy of his love fails to realize the fact that all are worthy of his love, and his rejection of Love reflects a rejection of Christ. 

This finds itself depicted in the New Testament, as Christ judges those before him.

“‘Depart from me, you who are cursed … for I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’” [14]

Some, when faced with the demands of righteousness, would rather opt for an easy life of ignorant bliss. It is certainly not easy to be Good, and to be honest, those Hungry Hungry Hippos have it pretty sweet! To be constantly feeding material desire, to be unaware of one's own Spiritual bankruptcy, to embrace a life of hedonism… it takes no effort to blindly follow one’s Flesh; but we have been called to something higher.

Christians are instructed:

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” [15]

Others will confuse virtue with naivety, choosing to believe in inherent human Evil to excuse their own individual failings. “A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.” [19] They smugly believe their nihilistic perspective to be intelligent critique, shamelessly justifying their selfishness as simply natural while unknowingly exposing the Evil within their own hearts.

We are to know better, for “the eye is the lamp of the body.”

“So, if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is not sound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” [16]

We have been made in the reflection of a righteousness uncompromised by worldly pleasure, and thus in our individual battles between Spirit and Flesh we must remain equally uncompromised in our pursuit of such virtue. “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” [17] 

At this point in our search for Goodness, we may find ourselves exhausted. Exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees? Never enter the kingdom of heaven? Maybe those Hungry Hungry Hippos are onto something after all. 

Fortunately, we are not left to fend for ourselves against an insurmountable task. Scripture reveals that just as we trust in Christ and His Love, we in return are trusted in our love. “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” [18] We will not be perfect in our love, as we are unable to be perfect as people. But we must continue to strive for perfection in our love and ensure the maintenance of our faith in it as our ideal, for this is what it truly means to be Good. It is a pure foundation of Love which guides us in our endless journey and builds a reflection of the Godliness we seek to embody in the physical world around us. “Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.” [19] We are allowed to make mistakes, and we are allowed to stumble along the path laid out in front of us; yet our commitment to this path must be unyielding. For it is the path itself which defines us as people.

At Cornell, and in life, we are surrounded by Hungry Hungry Hippos; they grasp desperately at plastic marbles at artificial watering holes, with the victors of the affair reaping material wealth of enough magnitude to shake even the strongest foundations of moral virtue. It is easy, on the seventh passing of the Bentley on campus, to begin plotting your own path to a luxury SUV with an MSRP greater than the amount of money many people will see in their lifetimes. However, we as Christians, in our faith in Christ, must find the strength to reject compromise with the purity of our ideals, and remain steadfast in our own individual paths of virtue. For if Christ was not naive for living a life grounded in unyielding Love, and if He is to be our savior for His selfless sacrifice in supreme dedication to such ideals, then we must commit ourselves fully to the realization of His Kingdom on this Earth through unwavering faith in Good. It is our duty.

“On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.'” [20]

Sources

[1] - BAY AREA ENTERTAINER. “THE HISTORY OF Hungry Hungry Hippos.” Accessed November 24, 2024. http://www.bayareaentertainer.com/7/post/2023/03/the-history-of-hungry-hungry-hippos.html.

[2] - “Hungry Hungry Hippos Commercial 1978.” Accessed November 24, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzG8Klpm1GY.

[3] - “Hippo Guide: How Big They Are, What They Eat, How Fast They Run - and Why They Are One of the Most Dangerous Animals in the World.” Accessed November 24, 2024. https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/mammals/facts-about-hippos.

[4] - IFAW. “Hippopotamus Facts, Diet, and Threats to Survival.” Accessed November 24, 2024. https://www.ifaw.org/animals/hippopotamuses.

[5] - Genesis 1:27 (NRSVCE)

[6] - Lee, Stan. Amazing Fantasy (1962) #15. 1962. Marvel, n.d.

[7] - Galatians 5:17 (NRSVCE)

[8] - Galatians 5:16 (NRSVCE)

[9] - CNA. “If God, Why Evil?” Catholic News Agency. Accessed November 24, 2024. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/resource/55984/if-god-why-evil.

[10] - I am referencing the New Testament (NRSVCE), Catechism of the Catholic Church [1866], Ten Commandments (NRSVCE), and the New Testament (NRSVCE) again (with an emphasis on Matthew 22:36-39), respectively. 

[11] - Matthew 5:44 (NRSVCE)

[12] - Matthew 46:47 (NRSVCE)

[13] - Matthew 25:41-46 (NRSVCE)

[14] - Matthew 6:19-21 (NRSVCE)

[15] - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, First Part

[16] - Matthew 6:22-23 (NRSVCE)

[17] - Matthew 5:20 (NRSVCE)

[18] - Matthew 6:14 (NRSVCE)

[19] - Matthew 12:31 (NRSVCE)

[20] - Matthew 7:22-23 (NRSVCE)