Call
this my third annual Christmas Story Blog.
This year was a no-brainer. Yes one of the most beloved Christmas
stories-turned-TV-show, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, turned 50 years this
month! (I am proud to say I have watched at least that many times!) Yes, he is
being honored with merchandise in all the stores & even a postage stamp! We
all know the story of Rudolph, but we need to remember it was his friends &
life experiences that showed him the way back home again.
The first risk-taker our hero encounters
after being embarrassed & rejected by family, peers and even Santa, is
Hermey the elf. He is the elf with a dream (to be a dentist) and has already
begun the positive steps (studying) to make his dream come true. Rudolph, with
no direction or next step, happily runs away with Hermey the dreamer and they
go off for a life adventure. They then encounter our risk-taker number two,
Yukon Cornelius, the greatest prospector in the North. Together, the three
begin an adventure that mostly involves avoiding the Bumble (snow monster) and
develop strong friendships along the way. With Hermey & Yukon as his role
models, Rudolph learns that listening to your heart and accepting the 'gifts'
that life has given you is the way to go. They unknowingly point him to his True
North (pun intended). Yukon learns that in his relentless search for silver
& gold, it is friendship that is truly golden. Hermey learns that surrounding
yourself with friends who believe in you & support your goals, will be the
springboard to realizing all you have dreamed. Together they save Christmas for all the good girls & boys and
we see it as a teachable moment for all the North Pole inhabitants and for
ourselves.
So keep
dreaming & risk-taking & remember, no Bumble can ever squash a dream
when one has friends! Merry Christmas!
A nice aside to the story is that even after being bullied as a youth, he persevered and became leader of the pack. Also, bumbles heart softened somewhere in there.
ReplyDelete