Frank
If there ever was a commercial to venture dangerously close to delivering such an emotional blow that I swear it almost caused physical pain, it’s this one.
https://youtu.be/K1kl7qJDmw4
My heart is broken from the beginning. He starts alone. He's been alone. He musters up the courage to face the world, the same one that rejected him, suppressing with all his might the fear that they’ll deal him the same cruel judgement.
He ventures into the square, does his best to appear relatable despite the impudent hush of the crowd upon his entrance. He puts the same bulbs in his neck they’d all gathered to admire. A valiant acknowledgment of his blatant dissimilarity. He shakes off the stage fright, clears room for courage in his throat. And he sings.
The man designated a monster by his peers and shunned to solitude sings.
His flickering light fails him, and his courage dims with it. He swallows the seemingly imminent reality that he will trek home to the same lone place he started; a wound reopened. A gaping hole left by a world too frigid to feel.
They stare. Only whispers. They scoff and smirk as he suffers.
But one, one, immune to the venomous chatter of the crowd, sees his humanity. The same want for friendly inclusion that lives in her. She reignites his purpose, sparks his smile, and he finishes his song successful, a tiny hand in his grateful paw. A crowd of stark judgement softened by one brave, small moment of bold kindness.
People can be so awful. It’s intolerable. But that immediate anguish we feel for Frank as his mouth falls gently agape and his eyes glisten with the overwhelming hopelessness of crushing sadness, is an entrapment we’ve all been sentenced to before, if only for a moment.
I have said this as a child, and I'll say it again. Simple and plain.
Be NICE. Do it on purpose. Do it when everyone’s watching. Do it when you have no witness. Do it if they laugh at you. Do it if they chastise you. Do it if it scares you. Do it even if you're the only one willing to consider. Do right because it is.
And do it with authenticity. Your motives matter.
In the words of my husband, fair is where you go to get cotton candy. Bring those people so much cotton candy their teeth hurt. Tickets to the fair for all.
And maybe, just maybe, you’ll see Frank on the Ferris wheel this year.
Deuteronomy 15:7-8
https://youtu.be/K1kl7qJDmw4
My heart is broken from the beginning. He starts alone. He's been alone. He musters up the courage to face the world, the same one that rejected him, suppressing with all his might the fear that they’ll deal him the same cruel judgement.
He ventures into the square, does his best to appear relatable despite the impudent hush of the crowd upon his entrance. He puts the same bulbs in his neck they’d all gathered to admire. A valiant acknowledgment of his blatant dissimilarity. He shakes off the stage fright, clears room for courage in his throat. And he sings.
The man designated a monster by his peers and shunned to solitude sings.
His flickering light fails him, and his courage dims with it. He swallows the seemingly imminent reality that he will trek home to the same lone place he started; a wound reopened. A gaping hole left by a world too frigid to feel.
They stare. Only whispers. They scoff and smirk as he suffers.
People can be so awful. It’s intolerable. But that immediate anguish we feel for Frank as his mouth falls gently agape and his eyes glisten with the overwhelming hopelessness of crushing sadness, is an entrapment we’ve all been sentenced to before, if only for a moment.
I have said this as a child, and I'll say it again. Simple and plain.
Be NICE. Do it on purpose. Do it when everyone’s watching. Do it when you have no witness. Do it if they laugh at you. Do it if they chastise you. Do it if it scares you. Do it even if you're the only one willing to consider. Do right because it is.
And do it with authenticity. Your motives matter.
In the words of my husband, fair is where you go to get cotton candy. Bring those people so much cotton candy their teeth hurt. Tickets to the fair for all.
And maybe, just maybe, you’ll see Frank on the Ferris wheel this year.
Deuteronomy 15:7-8
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