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Hello, everyone! My name is John McGrail, I have never ridden a motorcycle-but I would like to sometime, and I believe that if you’re not learning, you’re not living. Today I’m talking about living with blown expectations.
So, what’s today’s fun fact? Well, the title of today’s episode comes from the idiom (yes, I was paying attention to Tuesday’s episode…) a wolf in sheep’s clothing. So, from Wikipedia, it has a Biblical origin used to describe those playing a role contrary to their real character with whom contact is dangerous, particularly false teachers, as told from Jesus recorded in the book of Matthew, Chapter 7, verse 15. As a fable it has been falsely credited to Aesop. The confusion has arisen from the similarity of the theme with fables of Aesop concerning wolves that are mistakenly trusted by shepherds; the moral drawn from these is that one’s basic nature eventually betrays itself.
Well, I hope your basic nature leads you to being a part of the Friday Forum. The Friday Forum is your opportunity to share with me and the rest of the Stuff I Learned Yesterday community. Your Stuff can be anything from five to fifteen minutes and can be in your voice or written. You can add your Stuff to the Friday Forum in several ways—by calling 3048372278 and leaving a voicemail, by going to www.goldenspiralmedia.com/feedback and uploading an audio file, or by using the provided speakpipe widget; or, you can type out an email and send it in that way.
Now, here’s what I learned yesterday:
December 30, 2013. My 43rd birthday. The kids and bride were out on Christmas vacation from School, I took the day off because let’s face it, no one really works on December 30 in the financial services arena, and the kids decided they wanted to take me to the movies. We go to a lot of movies bent toward the child demographic and my youngest being 5 at the time we ended up at the theatre seeing “Frozen.” I had nothing specifically against the film, I like Disney movies very much but I hadn’t seen a lot of the marketing for “Frozen” so I wasn’t exactly excited about going. But, it was family time with four of my favorite people so it was going to be good on many levels. Well, by the time Anna was singing “Do you want to build a snowman?” and Elsa was on the other side of the door, I was in tears and the rest is history. “Frozen” ranks among the top of my favorite Disney films and I can’t imagine it won’t stay that way for a long time to come.
One of the elements of the film that I thought was done very well, even though it was a total trope, was the deception of Prince Hans of the Southern Isles. For the two of you who are listening who haven’t seen “Frozen” I’m about to get spoilery on you. The Castle where the sisters live is opened up for the first time in years to celebrate the crowning of Elsa. Anna, her sister, who has been cooped up for nearly all of her life is experiencing her first big party and her expectations are so high she thinks she might even meet her “Prince Charming,” be swept off of her feet, fall madly in love, and live happily ever after. All goes according to plan as she meets and falls in love with Prince Hans until she is forced to chase after Elsa who has caused a major catastrophe in the kingdom leaving it in a forever-winter state. Through the course of the film Anna is shown what true sacrificial love is; but, when she does return to the castle she is betrayed by Hans who has been there waiting for her to return so he could rule the kingdom himself and take her out of the way if necessary. I appreciate the deception because you can’t really see it coming until the moment when he shows his true nature. He seems one way throughout the entire film until he turns into the wolf who was hiding in sheep’s clothing.
Unfortunately I spent some time dealing with such a situation between our Stuff I Learned Yesterday seasons. An organization I work with has its foundations set in very specific moral standards. The idea is to live out these ideals not only when engaging in organizational activities but throughout all of your life, to take these standards as your own and to model your decisions, your actions, your character upon them. As you move through the organization you are given recognition of maturity throughout the program. One can tell from your appearance that you have learned and gained much from the program. What I found out was that one of our own—someone who was among the highest regarded in our organization—if not the highest—chose to betray those standards. Their true nature came out and people were damaged. The extent of their actions was revealed and we found out that we all had been living with this wolf for some time. My own personal world was rocked. I was not personally affected by this individual but I was blown away by how someone with such a solid and celebrated appearance could be this way. I guess I’m glad that I wasn’t in a position of not even being fazed because that would tell more about my heart than anything else.
Now, here’s where I start to tread some thin ice with some of you listening, and that’s ok. My point in bringing this up today is not even a thin veil of what’s happening to us here in the United States right now. We are faced with a choice to give the highest executive office in our nation to one of two wolves in sheep’s clothing. Many of you are looking at similar choices on a state and local level. I’m not going to take sides in this podcast. My point is hopefully a larger one. I have been struggling with a lot of different issues during this election cycle. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. There are policy differences that I have and candidate issues that I have and there is no clear “winning” choice for me. We’ve all heard we choose from the lesser of two evils but I’ve not really felt that way until now. This whole election is nothing short of bizarre.
Our pastor gave a really great sermon a few weeks ago based upon the book of the Bible entitled Habakkuk. In chapter one, we read the following complaint from the prophet to the Lord: “How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.” It seems history really does have a way of repeating itself, doesn’t it?
Here’s what I learned:
Mixing politics and religion in one podcast is dangerous stuff. Still, I know that there are folks out there that are putting hope in one party, one candidate, one platform, one set of ideas that will fix whatever social ills that they see around them. The only thing I can hold onto until November 9 is that my personal hope is not ultimately in any one woman or man. As I’ve gotten older I’ve seen person after person after person not only disappoint but ultimately leave a swath of destruction and pain as their true nature comes out. My own personal experiences have taken me from a man that generally took people at face value to one that trusts few. It hurts my heart that I have become this way but it also equals the field when looking at the election choices ahead of us. Ultimately I know who wins and thankfully I’m on the winning team. I urge us all not to give up, not to take the easy choice of not participating, and most of all not to let the wolves find you in a position to get eaten.
I’m John McGrail, and this has been Stuff I Learned Yesterday.
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