Blog 2763 – 05.23.2023

Only A Mother Could Love

Today’s story Disney’s Dumbo is the story of a mother’s love for her baby and the power of belief to overcome prejudice and even gravity.

Differences scare people and so scoffing and shaming are tools used to segregate and marginalize the different.

Instead of celebrating diversity and differences more often quarantine and shunning are employed to perpetuate some myth of purity or privilege. A certain Republican state governor has picked a fight with Disney over their company policies of inclusion and acceptance of differences. Disney has made the smart business decision of appealing to a broader audience. Republicans and Democrats both used to understand that successful business tactic and refused to let the more narrow-minded in their base determine their party’s platform.

One used to hear both parties talk of having a big tent capable of bringing together people of all stripes. Now of days we call the political sphere The Circus, perhaps because the main attraction seem to be the clowns. But we know what happened to the Greatest Show On Earth. When the corruption and cruelty could no longer be covered up with fresh saw dust the circus finally lost its appeal and went out of business.

The circus refused to change with the times and to consider that their audience had broadened and had come to expect more than the same ole tired routines. Cruelty to animals especially the elephants was the last straw that eventually caused The Greatest Show On Earth to close.

Businesses, churches, governments, and political parties who allow special interests to dictate their products, policies, programs, and platforms soon lose their broader appeal and are replaced but those willing to adjust to changing tastes and markets.

A product, policy, part, or religion only a mother could love is unlikely to last very long, but more likely to lose favor, market share, popularity, parishioners, and votes till like the buggy-whip factories it is replaced. No matter how hard we fight it change is inevitable. Like Dumbo and Beauty and the Beast it is a tale as old as time.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cl8Uaj56EfRmus6y_P8At7v8h69ELDCA/view?usp=drivesdk

Dumbo

Emma Thompson – Beauty and the Beast (From “Beauty and the Beast”/Audio Only)

Emma Thompson – Beauty and the Beast (From “Beauty and the Beast”/Audio Only)