{"id":1064,"date":"2019-10-27T14:17:55","date_gmt":"2019-10-27T14:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/?p=1064"},"modified":"2019-10-27T14:17:55","modified_gmt":"2019-10-27T14:17:55","slug":"bad-attitudes-and-beliefs-lessons-from-small-foot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/?p=1064","title":{"rendered":"Bad Attitudes and Beliefs: Lessons from Small Foot"},"content":{"rendered":"

My daughter and I came across\u00a0Small Foot<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0Red Box<\/a>\u00a0last year.\u00a0 We rented it, fell in love with it, and purchased a copy to add to our home library.\u00a0 I’m thrilled to see places like\u00a0Lakemont Park<\/a>\u00a0show it this past summer and most recently\u00a0Coral Reef Park in Palmetto Bay, Florida<\/a>. Why?<\/p>\n

\"Small<\/a><\/p>\n

This story,\u00a0 masterfully written by Mark Mason Robledo, provides fodder for so many issues that are impacting our society today.\u00a0 Those topics include social media, news, leadership, friendship, and family with the overriding theme that bad attitudes and beliefs prevent us from growing, getting along, and finding satisfaction in our innate calling.<\/p>\n

First, we meet a group of Yeti friends.\u00a0 Some who are questioning their personal worth and others who are questioning what they have been taught to believe.<\/p>\n

Then we are transported to the world of humans and meet another pair of friends. Percy and Brenda.\u00a0 Percy feels so desperate in his attempts to make an impact through social media that he stoops to creating a sensational lie.\u00a0 Ironically, he learns that yeti’s do exist.\u00a0 In the process, Percy undergoes personal transformation from a fame seeking individual to a martyr to protect others.<\/p>\n

Returning to the Yeti’s we encounter two fathers.\u00a0 One, the leader,\u00a0 the Stonekeeper,\u00a0 who perpetuates cultural lies and the other who is a humble production of these lies.\u00a0 The Stonekeeper does not maliciously enforce the wrong belief about the truth.\u00a0 He believes it is the only way to protect his people. This revelation persuades Migo to join along in the propaganda.\u00a0 But it doesn’t stop the Stonekeeper’s precious daughter, Meechee.\u00a0 She is resolved to discover the truth and feels betrayed by Migo who chooses to align with her father’s deceitful leadership.<\/p>\n

How often do leaders take advantage of\u00a0 false beliefs to secure and maintain order?\u00a0 I propose that is one reason why religion has such a bad reputation.\u00a0 It it suppose to be the portal of truth when instead it often is the means to instill fear and maintain social order.\u00a0 \u00a0Do we also fall into this trap like Migo as parents, teachers, and friends?<\/p>\n

Humans spook easily.\u00a0 Our fears lead to many misconceptions.\u00a0 One is\u00a0 that we need to be in control of everything especially our children.\u00a0 \u00a0Isn’t that what Biblical passages like\u00a0\u00a0I Timothy 3:4-5<\/a>\u00a0are all about?\u00a0 But a closer look at what Jesus taught might mean something entirely different.<\/p>\n

First in\u00a0John 8:32<\/a>\u00a0Jesus affirms that knowing the truth brings about freedom not control.\u00a0 Meechee’s drive for the truth is good.\u00a0 But sometimes the truth hurts.\u00a0 It can cut deeply.\u00a0 In a culture that is committed to avoid pain and to amuse itself this creates quite a challenge.<\/p>\n

The Stonekeeper persuaded Migo by revealing a horrendous reality in history.\u00a0 The humans violently attacked the yetis years ago.\u00a0 Reality is humans have been known to\u00a0 mistreat, abuse, and kill others from different human groups all throughout various points of history.\u00a0 Sometimes they behave in ignorance and lack of understanding of one another.\u00a0 At other times they do it to defend themselves.\u00a0 And unfortunately, there are a few who did it for selfish gain, power, and\/or pleasure.\u00a0 These are serious offenses that produces traumatic responses.<\/p>\n

Dealing with trauma is not easy or pleasant.\u00a0 It is wrought with agony, bed drenching tears, and grief.\u00a0 Emotional experiences that no one wants to go through.\u00a0 The longest book in the Bible, Job, illustrates this.\u00a0 At first,\u00a0Job’s friends<\/a> served him well, but their capacity (seven days which greatly surpasses most) to sit quietly and mourn with their friend expired.\u00a0 They broke out into reasoning and questioning as to who was to blame for such suffering for the next 35 chapters.\u00a0 Blame is nothing new it started in the beginning.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Genesis 3: 12-13<\/a>\u00a0Adam blamed Eve who then blamed the serpent for their rebellion.\u00a0 It’s continued throughout history.\u00a0 Instead of confessing that we would rather be gods of our own lives, we constantly push the blame on others whether it be the opposite sex, parents, teachers, or leaders.\u00a0 We complain and test God, “If only…then I will…” even though He already created perfection in the Garden of Eden.\u00a0 Adam and Eve are the perfect literary symbols or representatives of all humankind.\u00a0 Yet we keep blaming them instead of accepting our own responsibility represented by them.<\/p>\n

This is why John the Baptist preached to\u00a0repent<\/a>\u00a0and Jesus\u00a0reinforced<\/a>\u00a0it.\u00a0 Doctor’s cannot prescribe the right treatment until the right diagnosis is made.\u00a0 The same is true for our spiritual and emotional condition.\u00a0 The problem is no one wants to accept responsibility.\u00a0 Entitlement thinking blinds, hinders, and masks. It prevents from making any necessary changes.\u00a0 \u00a0It feeds a false sense of “deserve” based on pity or victim mentality.\u00a0 Think about it.\u00a0 If we’re all victims of Adam and Eve’s poor choice then the faulty thinking is justified.<\/p>\n

So back to Small Foot and the lessons we can learn.\u00a0 Did the humans apologize for what their ancestors did to the Yeti and commit that they would not let it happen again?\u00a0 How did the Yeti come to forgive them for treating them this way? How did they find the strength and motivation to forgive?\u00a0 \u00a0More importantly will we evaluate our\u00a0own family and political history?\u00a0 How does Small Foot encourage you to do so?<\/p>\n

This is what I love about a good story.\u00a0 They trigger thought to inspire reflection, learning, and change for the better.\u00a0 Enjoy the hilarious humor of Small Foot and take time to think and discuss its deeper matters.\u00a0 Let’s not embrace any more intentional lies to deceitfully lead and guide others.\u00a0 Let’s face the truth through love which forgives as it seeks justice and reparations.<\/p>\n

by Hope Mucklow, author of\u00a0Rojo The Baby Red Panda at the Zoo<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My daughter and I came across\u00a0Small Foot\u00a0at\u00a0Red Box\u00a0last year.\u00a0 We rented it, fell in love with it, and purchased a copy to add to our home library.\u00a0 I’m thrilled to see places like\u00a0Lakemont Park\u00a0show it this past summer and most recently\u00a0Coral Reef Park in Palmetto Bay, Florida. Why? This story,\u00a0 masterfully written by Mark Mason … Continue reading Bad Attitudes and Beliefs: Lessons from Small Foot<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1064"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1080,"href":"https:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions\/1080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopetheparentteacher.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}