The movie Rio is about a macaw parrot Blu, the last male of his species, who was needed to be taken to Rio, so that he can mate with a female, Jewel, to preserve the species.
Blu has been domesticated for 15 years and its effect is that he does not know how to fly. Most of his life he lived inside the store of his owner Linda. His inability to fly becomes his biggest problem when he was set loose in Rio.
A parrot that cannot fly is a funny sight indeed. Or is it?
Blu was made to fly, that is his very bird-iness. But domestication has stripped him of this ability. He has become less of a bird that he was meant to be. This handicapped have limited not only him but his world. While the birds were flying outside, he was stuck inside the bookstore.
On a side note, the bookstore was a good symbol of much of our lives. We have a lot of head knowledge and little experience on realities of life.
Many of us are like Blu, domesticated. We have attached our lives, ourselves to pleasure and convenience that we abhor the practice of virtues. We have become spiritually slothful. We have stopped exercising the wings of our soul. We have become lazy in building our character. Our main objective in life is to have a fun and easy life, and the hell with the rest.
Like Blu, we have chosen to become less than who we truly are. In our laziness, we have compromised the greatness God destined us for mediocrity. “Too much effort” is too much effort for the many of us. Why be virtuous? Why strive for greatness when you can have fun? Why risk it when I can be safe in my own little world?
Why indeed?
If you like to stay grounded instead of soaring, then choose mediocrity. Stay trapped in your own little world, your little cage.
But if one wants to soar in life and live life to the full, one must remember who one is. We must remember that we are children of God. As birds are created to fly, we are created to be saints.
So how did Blu learned to fly?
He did when he forgot his fears, his self, his very life.
When Jewel fell from the plane with a broken wing, Blu jumped after her even though he did not knew how to fly. You can say that love pushed him off the plane and into Jewel. It is in this act of love that Blu learned to fly.
It is true with us bipeds as well. Only love can make us fully human. When we forget ourselves and give it to others, we shall find our true humanity. Our life can only soar with the wings of love. To stay selfish is too stay stuck and grounded.
Love as we can see demands risk and sacrifice. Blu took a risk of sacrificing his life to save Jewel. Love is not something that happens in our heads. It is very real, so real that you can touch it, like the cross of Christ. Love without action is not love, it is a silly imagination.
So let the parrot lead you in soaring in life. The high life God has called and made us for.
So start spreading those wings and go love and help your neighbor.
With a song stuck in my head for 6 months straight I had two options:
Punch myself very hard in the face and hope a different song would start playing in my head, or
Analyze the lyrics until I learned something useful.
That’s how Cee Lo Green taught me to achieve. Let me explain…
I’ve never been all that productive of a person. You see, I’ve always waited until I was “good enough” until I started taking meaningful action. I would do tons of work trying to become “good enough,” but since that’s a pretty vague goal I tended to get stuck always preparing to take real action. I would rarely accomplish something meaningful.
Luckily Cee Lo stepped in. You see, in “Forget You” he tells a beautiful story: guy loves girl, guy sees girl in a car with a rich dude, guy gets angry that he wasn’t rich enough for her, guy says screw this. He sings, “I guess the change in my pocket wasn’t enough I’m like, forget you!” And moves on. He could have sang, “I guess the change in my pocket wasn’t enough I’m like…well, I guess I’ll get a second job, try to invest wisely, and eventually win you over.” Not quite as catchy.
The wise Cee Lo realized that it wasn’t worth wishing he had more money, or waiting until he got his Ferrari. If that girl wasn’t going be with him…forget her. Realistically, even if he did wait until he got that cash, car, and xbox, that girl still wouldn’t want him (or by then he would have been over her). So he started from where he was, not from where he hoped to be one day.
What does any of this have to do with real world achievement?
On one hand, most of us want our life to change in some way. On the other hand, most of us are waiting for something before we can really take action. We’re waiting to finish a class, get a promotion, have a new situation, or find a direction. Many of us think that if only we had that one thing in our life happen, then we could start making progress.
I need a perfect outline before I write that essay or blog post
I need the perfect work out and diet plan before I start exercising
I need the perfect website, traffic, blog, or product before I can start an online business
I need to wait for the right time before I quite the job I hate
I know what I did for the longest time is either:
work my butt off trying to be prepared enough to start making progress, or
pout and feel sorry for myself.
If only I had asked, “WWCLD?” (what would Cee Lo do?). He would have said, “forget being ‘good enough.’ I am where I am. I don’t need to wait until I’m ‘good enough’ or ‘ready.’ I am going to start moving forward from where I am right now.”
Start achieving like Cee Lo
I’m not telling you to go record a hit record (although if you do, referencing Mr. T’s catchphrase like Cee Lo does in “Forget You” is always the right choice). Instead, pick the one biggest goal you currently have in your life. Got it? Okay, I don’t care if you’re starting at zero in pursuing that goal. I don’t care how much you have to learn before you can really do it. The most important thing you can possibly do is to say “forget you” to whatever you think you need to do before you act. Figure out how to take your first step now.
Don’t be like Cee Lo was before his “Forget You” kick. He had to “borrow, beg and steal and lie and cheat, trying to keep” the girl. In the same way, you’d have to work your ass off to get to a point where you are “good enough” to start taking real world action. Screw the ideal. Start from where you are right now.
P.S. I’ve not consulted Cee Lo, but I’m pretty sure we’re best friends and he probably agrees with everything in this warped interpretation of his catchy song lyrics. Sorry Cee Lo if you’re being misrepresented here!
For my dear friend Marco, who requested for a name design for his friend. Sorry for the delay. Let me know what you think. It's simple but I hope you and your friend will like it :)
