There is a part in the beginning scenes of a movie in which the child is trying to come up with ways for his parent to accept him. The child racks his brain and decides to tell his father he will join the baseball team. His father played baseball, so he could coach him, and that would get the two to bond. The father responds by saying, “Don’t get your hopes up.” You can see the child’s shoulders sink, his face fall, and he takes a deep, sorrowful breath.
There is a song that starts playing:
“I bruise you
You bruise me
We both bruise so easily
Too easily to let it show
I love you
And that’s all I knowAll my plans
Have fallen through
All my plans depend on you
Depend on you to help them grow
I love you
And that’s all I know”
The child looks up at the sky that night, and he says, “Come on, all I need is a chance.”
Now. Granted, this is an animated movie, and the child is a small chicken, voiced by Zach Braff, and his father is also a chicken. The movie is “Chicken Little.” But this scene really hit home with me. There is another part of the movie where Chicken Little tries again to get his father to listen to him, to hear him, to believe in him and to trust him, but when he sees it’s not going to happen he just says forget it. When the father finally, near the end of the movie, sees what he is doing to his son he says “Son, my love is not something that you have to earn and I am sorry that I have made you feel that you had to.” (It is something like that).
All throughout the movie the lead character, Chicken Little, says “today is a new day” to himself. He is constantly pushed down, picked on, belittled and unappreciated by those around him yet he picks himself up, brushes himself off and persevere.
I know it’s a Disney cartoon, but when Braeden asks to watch it, I don’t fight him. Even though we have seen this movie at least a dozen times since I gave it to him on Easter. The movie is hilarious, has cool music, awesome characters and fantastic animation. It is right up my alley. Right down to the scene where Chicken Little rocks out to Queen’s “Champion” singing into a spoon. Haha. And on top of it all, it has the whole Aesop’s fable angle of bringing home a specific message.
– Children, we know you’re going to make mistakes as you grow. We know sometimes you won’t make sense and you’ll seem like your walking blindly through your life when things are co clear on the other side. But you’ll persevere. Your paths, bumpy or not, are meant to take you places even if it means running into a few walls and falling into some holes along the way. In those instances, you’ll be forced to get your tail up and in gear. Those are the moments that build character and mold you into the adult you’ll some day be.
– Parents, we know you think you know everything that is best for your children. With your parent self all certain and sure that since you love your child so much that everything you want for them is right, because you would never want to hurt your child. All you want to do is make sure they are happy and never have to struggle. You, as a parent, are deemed the protector of your children. And though it is indeed your job to raise that child and show them the tricks to the trade; though it is your job to teach them the difference between right and wrong. It is not your job to tell them how to get somewhere on their path. You do have to let your children go, you do have to give them a chance to find their own way and hope that you have raised them in such a way that their character (from those holes and walls) leads them in a prosperous direction.
Yes, I know. How did I get all of this from “Chicken Little?” ha. I guess I hit one too many walls along some of my paths. But hey, I’ve got fine character and my little boy will too.
Even little chickens can save the world. ;o)
