You Will Never Be Mufasa
This week, I was watching Lion King 2 with the camp kids. SPOILER ALERT (I understand that this movie is as old as a fart, but I'll say SPOILER ALERT anyways). One of my favorite parts happens after Kovu (Scar's adopted son... keep up, yo!) is sent away into exile for plotting to kill Simba. The plan to corner Simba and kill him fails, and while Kovu really did have nothing to do with the foul plot, he is ultimately punished for what his kin did. Thus, after that, Simba talks to his daughter, Kiara, and the conversation ends like so:
Simba: I know he's following in Scar's paw prints...and I must follow in my father's.
Kiara: You will never be Mufasa!
Hey! I did say SPOILER ALERT. You'll live.
But this brings me to my list of the top five extremely hard things in this world.
5) Relationships
Yep. Gotta love Susie. She's so cute!!! And resourceful.
Remember that thing you always wanted, that took all your money, freedom, time, postitivity, energy, non gray hairs, optimistic outlook on life, and people living quarters? Oh yeah, we call that a relationship! In the human process, everyone pressures the male to make the "first move". If Courtney accepts Donkey Kong and his barrel throwing, she will take him, and Liam Neesan will fight a million ethnically ambiguous people who forgot how to do their jobs of being assasins, kidnappers, ice cream vendors, covert ops, S.H.I.E.L.D, M.I.B, astronauts, etc., to get him back...or something. And Whitney better say yes; I didn't watch the Bachelor for nothing! If not, she will move on to another tribe and try her luck elsewhere. If absolutely no mate is found, Agatha will have brought much shame and dishonour to her family, and will ultimately end up being eaten by her cats, or eating her cats -when she runs out of ice cream. And Donkey Kong will go around playing the chest drums, shouting, "It wasn't my fault, she had all the issues! It was like she was three different people!"
4) French Bread
Paint me like one of your dead guys. Ooh La La!
You ever thought to yourself, "I want to bludgeon someone to death and eat the evidence!"? Well, the baguette is your weapon of choice. Harder than diamond, harder than that Calculus exam from Professor Quobloskivich's Creative Writing class, harder than your sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad life. The good news is French bread isn't forever. Or maybe it is- I doubt I'd be able to tell the difference, and nobody eats it anyway. Pierre just likes cycling around France dressed like a mime with a baguette in the front of his bike to be ironic, mais oui?
3) Metal
If I have to explain this one, you should probably go home. It's metal. It doesn't matter what kind of metal either- you know it's going to be hard. And cold, and unfeeling, and not tasty at all. I learned the hard way. Metal is metal, unless it's...
He's alive! He's alive! He's...not a hppy bull!
This type of metal is hard, but mostly hard to understand. Still stands in it's rank of hardness though, because sometimes it's just too much rock for one hand. (Get it, get it?) And it's like they say, "You can't kill the metal!", probably because it has the tendency to stab itself as many times as you have (if not more) and then drink all of it's own blood like a self absorbed vampire and get stronger. I'll stick with Count Chocula, though, because he only drinks my chocolate, and then gives it back to me in cereal form. If old C.C. was running a political campaign, I'd have to call it "Crunching you can believe in!". METAL!!!
2) Trainwrecks
I don't think that trainwrecks are hard, per se, as anybody can wreck a train- but watching them is hard NOT to do. You know your favorite episodes of So You Think You Can Dance are the ones where all the horrible dancers are still in the auditioning process. You also know all your favorite American Idol moments are the ones like this:
Or this:
Boy, American Idol has seen better days...
It ain't easy being fosheezy! Nome sane? But it's just so hard to not watch people make fools of themselves on national television. I'll admit that is mostly what I do. You think you're better than me? You probably are, and I appreciate that; someone has to be. But there's nothing like a good ol' fashioned trainwreck, and you can always tell it's coming from a mile away, in slow motion, in 4 dimensions, and in the color 14. Now, the exploitation and embarrassing people; whatever...that's a different conversation for a different time. For now, just know that we all enjoy a classic trainwreck moment- be honest!
1) Expectations
I know, I was just donking around with the other four, but this is for real. Expectations are always going to be hard. Hard to live up to, hard to bear, hard to throw out the window. Everyone has them, and everyone will have them. Every time you move up in a stage of life, there's an expectation. Every time you have a title, there's an expectation. Every time you shift your status, there's an expectation. And, every time you have an expectation, there's always something that somebody wants out of you.
And I believe the reason expectations are so hard to handle is because no one wants to be "that guy"- the person who is known for constantly letting people down. Living up to peoples' expectations becomes very difficult. If you're a student, you're expected to graduate. If you graduate, you're expected to get a job. If you get a get a job, you're expected to be able to pay your bills, provide for you and your family, etc. And right there, we've created a pebble rolling down a long hill, collecting expectations and growing larger, until it becomes a boulder that can and will eventually crush someone. And even though we like to act like we can say the magic words "Screw This" and everything just magically goes away, that's not how it works. Because then people expect you to act a certain way with even that title, and face it- you can't go through life being "Screw This" guy. No matter how invincible you think you are, something will always get to you, and will make you care and will make you human- and you'll have expectations. Isn't funny how expectations work?
And let's not forget- other people aren't the only source of expectations getting piled on us. We create our own expectations as well. As we should. Goals, resolutions, lists, these things show that we have determination, a will of our own, something to aim for in life. And they're usually just as hard to bear as the expectations others put on us, if not more so. When you let others down, that can be expected, from both sides. However, we tend to beat ourselves up more over letting ourselves down, in addition to letting other people down (sometimes the two go hand in hand).
But here's my opinion. Be the person that you need to be. Sometimes that's all that's even needed. When we stand in the gap not just for ourselves, but also for others, we can often lead others to being who they are meant to be as well. And I write this for myself also, because I don't always know what I'm doing, or who I need to be, or if I'm doing what's expected of me. But I want to be someone who does. I think we should all have the desire to be someone who does, because even if the expectations on us are high, success or fail, we walk away gaining something that will make us better. Failure is always an option, until it isn't. Until you beat failure, keep failing! I know it's a very strange thing to say, but it's what I feel doesn't get said enough. You can only fail so many times before you eventually understand what you were missing. And in that regard, failing to meet people's expectations can point you in the right direction.
Now, know this: I'm not saying don't try to meet expectations, nor am I saying let expectations beat you up. But if you understand how hard expectations are, then the people who place expectations on you must also know how hard it is to live up to them. So when people have expectations of you, you can either remain in that shadow, or you can use that shadow to find the light. Simba learned this lesson in Lion King 2. His father cast a great shadow over Pride Rock, both in life and death, but Simba learned that to keep the legacy of his father going didn't require transforming into him. Following Mufasa's footsteps meant having exceptional character, being merciful, forgiving, loving. And while, yes, Mufasa was strong, scary, loud, mighty, and intimidating, Simba learned that wasn't what, or even all, his father expected him to be as the leader of the pride.
So, expectations are hard. Yet, they're never so difficult to bear once we start looking at ourselves, and finding out how we can meet those expectations by being ourselves, and helping others to do the same. Now, will "ourselves" need improvement, growth, and redirection? You bet! But sometimes the answers to our expectations lie in the fact that we're not alone, that we can seek answers, that we can learn from those who have the same, or different expectations. And just like Simba, who became more like Mufasa when he stopped trying to be Mufasa, and started dropping his ideal, his image, his understanding of what Mufasa was to him and the pride, We are all able to rise above the hard realities of life. When Simba learned this, he ended up creating a better pride, where those on the outside, those in Scar's pride, were now free as well - and intergrated into Pride Rock; where they were no longer starving, thirsty, or being driven to extinction- something his father, Mufasa, was not able to do. If you must fail, fail! But don't stay there, and try to remember that no one can stay defeated forever. Expectations placed on us, no matter how difficult, can always be met- and then some, if we just dig a little bit deeper, and find out that we have more than enough strength to carry that boulder called "expectations" and turn that stone into a masterful piece of art.
Again, SPOILER ALERT. Although, if you read this far, you're getting what you get. Like cake; we all like cake! Cheesecake, red velvet cake, bundt cake, chocolate cake, birthday cake, ice cream cake, cupcakes, that gluten-free stuff that's supposed to be cake, fru...well nobody likes fruitcake (even the gluten-free peeps are like, "That's nasty!"). Cake wouldn't be ruined for you if someone said "IT'S DELICIOUS!" In that same way, don't let your life get out of place because of heavy expectations. Those expectations, when you meet them, might just turn out to be the most deliciously rewarding experience in themselves.
Make good choices, love one another!
