Sunday, July 6, 2014

"You're Going The Wrong Way!"

Have you ever felt like the couple in this movie clip who were trying their best to let Steve Martin and John Candy in Planes, Trains and Automobiles know that they were headed in the wrong direction? How many times have we like the couple in the movie clip seen the oncoming traffic heading towards the car that was traveling in the wrong direction? Even worse, how many times have the loved one, community, student, congregant, leader, etc. responded the same way that Martin and Candy does only to find out later that they were indeed headed in the wrong direction and that what they were doing was not working. Replay the video clip and see it as an analogy or metaphor for what many of us experience in life whether it be the couple issuing the warning or Martin and Candy receiving it. From the perspective of the couple issuing the warning, it is difficult to see oncoming danger, issue the warning, and then see that the person or people receiving the warning are blatantly disregarding it. Martin and Candy continued to tell themselves that the couple who were trying to save them did not know what they were talking about, in fact, they accused them of being drunk. Why does it take us to be nearly killed (literally and/or figuratively) before we realize that we are going the wrong way? There are oncoming tractor trailers! School systems, governments, societies,politicians, etc. etc. continuously put programs and policies in place that are going the wrong way and when there is an outcry from the people, the response is the same as Martin's and Candy's. Men and boys proudly wearing their pants midway down their thighs showing their underwear barely able to walk; all of these guns on the street;the refusal to make education a priority; all of these senseless murders; the anything goes mentality and on and on and on..........We're going the wrong way! The oncoming tractor trailers (consequences of our going the wrong way) are moving swiftly and if we don't turn things around soon, we will all be crushed. What affects one directly, affects us all indirectly. The unnamed couple in the movie clip knew this and were doing their metaphorical part in looking to head off a disaster. For those of us who are in the position of Martin and Candy, we must understand when we are going the wrong way and make the necessary corrections. Something to critically think about.

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