Here’s a cute short cartoon bringing out an important moral for people who think another person is in their way. When people learn how to work together, rather than against each other, progress is certain!
Enjoy!
“The Bridge”
How helping others helps yourself
July 24, 2019 | 33 comments
I am working in the kitchen at CSCamp. How perfect!
So cute!
Thank you, Evan, so cute, sweet and funny and, yes helpful! It made me smile over my whole face 🙂 I need this opportunity to smile today, and am grateful for it!
Evan,
I did not like it. It came across that violence was an ok response to violence to get your way. I think there is a better response when someone is violent toward us. 🙁
Love always finds a way! that’s the message that comes through to me…… and thank you Evan!
Kirsten, I am with you. I did not like it and I don’t think it is a good example for adults and especially children. I expected the two little ones to help the wide bodies but they only helped themselves. Maybe I missed something but that is what I saw. Not an example of Love.
Debbie
Interesting. I had the same thoughts. It did seem like a bit too violent the way the little ones were tossed around. It reminded me of cartoons when I was little when the characters were squished and always popped back just fine. For me, I always react when little animals seem hurt.
Interesting thought .. what if there is a bigger – or deeper – lesson from Evan that in today’s unfolding world we interpret and react to conditions according to our own perspective in the moment, often subconsciously, and every moment affords opportunity to follow Jesus’ example and ask what the ever-present Father is doing that we might do the same. Am I reacting..or praying?
I think it showed an immovable attitude came to no good end and the small ones had that same choice for a moment and realized there was another way and took it.
With one attitude everything goes wrong and with the other attitude things go well and everybody wins. I’ve seen this play out on a thousand play ground interactions just like this!
This was my thought, too.
Again, we always have a choice- choose God!
Thank U, Evan & thoughtful bloggers.
I appreciated how it showed the power of humility. When one was able to bend and let the other go first, both progressed. “Blessed is that man who seeth his brother’s need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another’s good.”
Good morning Evan and all! It seems to me that the cartoon can be thought of like a Bible story. We don’t take everything we read in the Bible literally, in fact that’s why we have Science and Health by MBE to help us interpret and understand spiritually. And when we do, it’s seen in a while new and Truth-full (God-full) light.
I love what Patty says about there being a bigger and deeper lesson and interpreting and reacting to things in the world according to our human perspective. Also thank you BigSky for your simplistic summary that “With one attitude everything goes wrong and with the other attitude things go well and everybody wins.” To me those are the deep and simple meanings of the cartoon along with humility as g pointed out.
Evan I especially appreciated this today because I have a couple situations in my life in which I’m having to deal with people that I really wish would just “go away.” Well, what I’m learning is that it’s not about me being humanly right, because humanly I could probably get lots of other human opionions to agree with me that I am right. I’m pretty sure that’s not the lesson God is teaching me. I’ve been here before. God is knocking at the door asking me if I’m ready this time to face the challenge, to drink the cup and find the spiritual way through to healing instead of turning away and avoiding.
I’ve posted this recently on SV and it’s been so strong on my mind “every moment is a holy moment.” This came from the speaker of a CS audio chat. And it’s meaning is that, it’s not about the flat tire while you are driving, or the uncomfortable confrontation with a stranger, or the difficult relationship, or any other challenging situation you can think of, it’s about how are we going to face this situation? Are we going to handle it humanly or are we going to turn to God and say okay God, what are you showing me? How do you want me to proceed?
Here’s a link to the chat:
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/10iqfo6meng?s=e
I enjoyed reading everyone’s comments and I’m glad we all take children’s programming seriously! I would respectfully add that once we suspend disbelief and accept the little characters can get flung without getting hurt, we are (I think) supposed to also imagine the bigger characters can plunge into the river without getting hurt. They’ll be amusingly vexed, then crawl out of it, Wiley Coyote-style.
I think the exact problem is that it is a cartoon for children that suggests it is ok for children to react violently when presented with violence. What about if they are presented with someone of a different race, religion or culture that they do not understand? Is it ok to be violent toward them too? I do not believe this is a loving way to respond to a problem. There is an answer to lovingly help everyone – even if they are violent toward us. Jesus didn’t push Peter off a bridge for denying him. He also didn’t push Judas off a bridge for betraying him. We can work to help everyone get over the bridge. We don’t have to exclude anyone. The solutions are limitless.
Yes, the cartoon may have gone overboard, pun intended! Of course, we should never use force except in self-defense if necessary. The cartoonish bridge-dismantling was likely a confusing message, even in fantasy.
But the takeaway is helpful: we will help ourselves as well as others if we work collaboratively and don’t seek to “save” people who have a different sense of the problem and didn’t ask us to save them.
We can’t control others and should not assume unwarranted responsibility for their behavior. The little critters worked out their problems and let the big critters work out theirs. It’s not necessary to take responsibility for others’, especially those who have acted abusively toward us.
Since the big critters couldn’t use the bridge collaboratively and prevented others from using it, the little critters reconfigured it to make it work for small critters only.
I guess it comes down to how you imagine the ending. Since this is cartoonland, I figured the big critters fell into the river and had to work together to cross it.
Everyone’s perspective is valid. But I think some viewers were touched by the video because the “good” characters didn’t seek to save or control the other characters. Their reconfiguring the bridge was genius, and also a bit of a metaphor. Each pair of critters will work together collaboratively, each being responsible for their own salvation.
Thank you, Jay, for this comment! This is very helpful to me as it is something I have to learn.
It is interesting to see the vastly differing opinions from the commenters due to their own perceptions. I see, obstacles presenting themselves but with good cooperation solutions can be obtained.!!
Humility….YES!! that is my takeaway & I loved it!
For me the cartoon teaches not to “do unto others as” they did unto you. The little ones tried that and found themselves in the same spot as the big ones. BUT the little ones learned from their mistake and did unto each other as they would have the other do unto them.
I like your interpretation Barb.
I like that interpretation too! Thanks!
Mrs. Eddy speaks of “seeking one’s own in another’s good”.
Mrs. Eddy speaks of “seeking one’s own in another’s good’.
When I was a little kid I watched cartoons on TV and I was thinking back on them recently and realized just how violent they were (e.g. Roadrunner, Foghorn Leghorn, Hercules, and even Bugs Bunny). When I was 5 years old I got mad at my older sister for pestering me and “put on my Hercules ring I got in a box of cereal to get the extra strength to beat her up” (which consisted of just pushing her until she stopped pestering me, so no real harm was done). But I remember my mom having to sit me down and let me know it wasn’t okay to act violently toward my sister or anyone else! Lesson learned and I’m happy I had a mom that took the time to teach me wrong from right.
But again, it made me wonder why cartoons back in the 1960’s were so violent (and maybe they still are violent today…I no longer watch cartoons)? What were the creators of the cartoons thinking? But at the same time there were positive lessons in those cartoons too (like the fact that good always prevailed over evil). So thanks to everyone that pointed out both the good and bad aspects of the cartoon today. The human experience seems to be a mixture of good and bad (wheat and tares) so it’s important that we stay alert and sort out bad from good when presented with them and hold to the good and discard the bad.
This could be an Old Testament story where God is depicted as using violence to solve problems. It’s not unlike Joshua getting rid of all the Canaanites to achieve God’s goal. Jesus shows us God in a different way. If someone asks us to go a mile, go an extra mile–if someone asks us to move out of their way, not only move, but help them get across. It would be interesting to see a rewritten version of the clip which aims to depict “unselfed love.”
Brian, I especially appreciated your comment. Even the Disney movies, which I loved, had wicked witches, poisoned apples, and so much more. I can remember my daughter, when she was little, getting scared at a Disney movie, and I’d comfort her with saying it was a story – not real. Evil in any form is just fantasy – not reality!
GUESS THAT IS WHAT MAKES THIS WORLD GO ROUND! OPINIONS, EVERY ONE HAS
ONE & THEY ARE PERSONAL!!
Interesting in light of a personal situation in which a loved one basically asked or acted in a way which pretty much forced me to get out of their way! They are moving on in their life. Regardless of the circumstances or consequences to our relationship. No second thoughts, no guidance or opinions wanted. So, no matter what I feel a bit pushed off the bridge,but knowing that this “bear” cannot wreak havoc or pain or loss of peace or companionship in my life, or maybe one day, in the “bears’, because Love has both of us in her arms always and now is the time to shake off the water and crawl out unharmed, as previous writer mentioned happens in cartoons. More Love and forgiveness and compassion heal “bridge” fights when the Christ is welcomed into the equation
Noone thought to just back up to the beginning step aside let the other person pass across the bridge then continue on his way. Dah! Where’s the problem?
What I saw in this is that evil always destroys itself. The two larger animals manifested anger, hatetred, stubbornness, ego, obstruction, mortal mind. Against each other and whomever came along. Preventing others from demonstrating Harmony and progress. The two smaller animals worked together to simply create an environment where evil could not exist (a narrower bridge). Which we all have to do every day. It was not violence in reaction to violence. It was demonstrating intelligence and the nothingness of evil in the first place. Even when one had to help the other to pass, only then were they both able to proceed.
Bingo! Thank you Roger for stating very eloquently what I was also thinking but couldn’t quite manage to express. When we destroy evil we don’t consider ourselves being violent, we’re just destroying a false belief. Like you stated the larger animals were “evil”; hatred, stubbornness, obstruction and the smaller animals were the Truth shining through our spiritual consciousness to destroy the false beliefs.
Good way to look at it!