A couple of months ago, I was idly browsing through the channels, looking for something to watch that would hold my interest for more than 2 minutes. I like horror, supernatural, and anything Csi or Law and Order. I like some comedy, and will watch a love story as long as there is a good horror plot going with it.
What I ended up watching that night was the movie Happy Feet. It’s a movie about penguins. Emperor Penguins to be exact. Okay, okay-twist my arm-sometimes I like musicals and cartoons too.
I watched it that night, and a week later watched it again. And it really got me thinking. About being different and how society looks at you. And how they treat you. But before I get into that, let me share just a little bit about the story.
It starts with Memphis and Norma Jean, meeting and falling in love. When penguins mate, they lift up their hearts in “song”. If you’ve ever watched a documentary about this, they will “sing”, and whoever is attracted to their voice becomes their mate. So, the 2 love penguins hit the right notes together and voila, an egg is dropped. The female penguins go out to forage for food while the male penguins sit on the eggs. But you must never drop or lose an egg. Of course, Memphis loses his egg for just a few seconds. The females finally come home. Norma Jean finds that her egg has not quite hatched yet. But when it does, out comes the baby penguin, who can’t keep his feet still. They name him Mumble, because when he lifts up his voice to sing, it sounds awful. But his feet are always happy and tapping away. Mumble grows a little slower than most of the other hatchlings, and when they finally are ready to lift their voices up in song to attract a mate, well, Mumble just can’t find the right voice. But when he dances, Gloria decides that she fits right in with him. His tapping and her singing.
Eventually, the elders ostracize Mumble. He’s not a part of them, he doesn’t have a heart song, he just doesn’t belong. He leaves the colony, and meets up with some smaller penguins. Adélie penguins. There is a small group that Mumble becomes friends with. They travel with him, trying to keep him out of trouble. They get into more trouble than they keep him out of though. In their travels, they find that humans want to come to the Antarctic to fish, which will mean less fish for the penguins. Mumble ends up in an aquarium and when a child taps on the glass, starts tap dancing. Everyone is amazed that a penguin can do that and the humans finally release him back in the wild. Of course, they have a tracking device on him.
Mumble leads them to his colony of penguins in the Antarctic. When Mumble returns home, the penguin voices are lifted up in song, and Mumble does the only thing that he can do-tap dances. The humans are amazed and take videos and sends them around the world. The humans decide that they have been overfishing there and leave everything in its natural setting. And everyone lives happily ever after.
I love the movie, the singing and the dancing, but what had really opened my eyes was the statement it made about being different. Poor Mumble doesn’t have a heart song to attract a mate with-he only has tap dancing or happy feet.
Therefore, he is kicked out of his home. His parents feel bad, but what can they do-the elders have decreed that Mumble doesn’t belong.
How many of us have felt like that? You’re “kicked out” because you’re different. You don’t belong. And it can be any reason-physical, emotional, mental, spiritual. Oh, you’re in a wheelchair, I’m not going to look at you because you’re different. Oh, you’re emotionally or mentally challenged, well, I don’t know what to say to you, so I’m going to ignore you like you’re not there. Oh, I’m a born again Christian-you’re a witch???? I’ll pray for you, but I definitely won’t be spending an evening of food and conversation with you.
Growing up, I was extremely shy to the point of being absolutely terrified of people, and I was (and still am) overweight. Plus I was (and still am) psychic. That was 3 strikes against me from the very beginning. And I can tell you that I was ostracized almost my entire life. People wouldn’t talk to me because they thought I was stuck up-after all, I wasn’t saying anything. I never got picked for the fun stuff because look at her-she’s fat, I don’t want her on my team. And when I finally realized that I had abilities, well, it was really just an overactive imagination. Because being psychic isn’t real.
How many times have we turned our heads away because someone was different? Well, you say that you don’t know how to react to someone who is different. What if I say the wrong thing? What if I do the wrong thing? Maybe sometimes we should just try.
When J and I go to any store, because of his health, he needs one of the electric carts to get through the store. I can not believe how many people act as if he’s not even there. They will cut in front of him while not looking at him. They will pass him in a narrow aisle giving him a dirty look for being in THEIR way. And it amazes me how when some of those same people have issues, they are the first ones to expect everyone to drop everything to help them because all of a sudden they can’t do it for themselves. Yet when they were healthy, they ignored those that had handicaps.
We are even teaching our children not to care about other people. Working in retail has proven how much society has changed from the 1930’s. Back then, if your neighbor got sick or hurt, many times, the whole neighborhood would pitch in to help. Now, we are so self absorbed, some of us wouldn’t even know our neighbor had died until we started smelling something really bad coming from next door.
There are many reasons for people being different, but I think it’s time that we started caring again. Really caring and showing that we really care. Next time you see someone in the grocery store that has a handicap, offer to get the product off the top shelf, next time you see someone struggling with trying to get something in their car-offer to help them. If people don’t want your help, they’ll tell you. But at least care enough to offer. Even if, at first, all you can offer is a smile.
Sometimes even a smile is the greatest gift you can give someone. So, don’t ignore people who are different, don’t make them feel like Mumble, an outcast. Appreciate people for their differences and get to know them. We are all human and we all like to be loved and needed-no matter what our difference. Try it, you just might find that it changes you in a very positive manner.
Like I said, at the end of the movie, Mumble saves the day. Everyone loves him and his difference. I wish it could be like that in real life. But maybe if just a couple of us try to make a difference, maybe little by little, we will all be able to save the day at the end.
So, lift up your heart song, see who hears it, or sees it or feels it. And if you can’t sing-get those Happy Feet going!
Till next time.