A "Fantasia " Journey

It's a hot and humid day,and I find myself inside being cooled by the air conditioners. As I sit here cooling off from the steamy heat outside I am enjoying a movie which helps take me on a wonderful journey. That's right I'm watching the Disney film, ""Fantasia "! Its at my favorite sequence with Mickey being The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Poor Mickey! He gets into so much trouble! But lets face it; how many times have we and Iknow I have wished for a magical wand that could be waved and all the tedious. Jobs would be done in a moment. It would be nice, but as Mickey shows us it creates more messes and problems just because he didn't know how to stop the brooms. Disney taught us a great message here. A couple of them. The first is quite obvious just do the job right yourself and it will be done and over with before you know it. A second message conveyed to us is based on power and responsibility. The sorcerer gave Mickey the responsibility to do the job. Unfortunately,Mickey fails when he tryst to do things the easy way by using magic. With the wand and magic at his disposal; Mickey becomes powerful. Too powerful, for he does not have the knowledge or the wisdom to control the power he has obtained. Yep! Mickey has lost control of the situation and when you really think about what is being portrayed here you realize the lesson we are being taught. We always want more than we are able to control; and that includes power. One of my favorite quotes comes from Spiderman starring Toby Mcguire. "With great power comes great responsibility". Boy, is that the truth! We see time and time again in history. As someone gains great power, they falter and become consumed with desire for even more power and control. The reality is that responsibility coincides wiith power. As we grow in knowledge and wisdom we realize the need for compassion, justice, and fairness. At least I hope we do. For that is where our strength truly comes from; the desire to help others. So this brings me back to Mickey who is being glared at by the Sorcerer as he stops the brooms and clears up the mess Mickey created. In response. Mickey grabs his pail and races out the door to fetch the water as he was suppose to. Mickey has learner the lesson that he is not wise enough for the magic he used nor is he responsible enough. I wish we could all learn this lesson from Mickey., but we don't. Maybe someday we will be wise and responsible enough to understand the relationship between power and compassion.