JOIN USThe below impressive lines invariably impact and get indelibly imprinted on our inner minds as we watch the iconic animation film — ‘The Lion King’. Simba, the lion cub, would be censuring himself of being culpable for his father, Mufasa’s death. With those gnawing pangs, when Simba would be living a guilt-ridden life, he encounters Rafiki, the sagacious-minded baboon.
Rafiki subtly asks Simba the reason behind his running away from his home. Simba pours out his pent-up agonies explaining how on being persistently persecuted by painful past memories, he had prevented himself from placing his foot on his land. Rafiki then hits Simba hard on his head with his staff. Simba writhing in pain, whines saying the whack did hurt him.
To this, Rafiki nonchalantly utters, “Why do you complain about the pain when it is, after all, a thing of the ‘past’ – Either you can run away or learn from it!” Saying this, he tries hitting Simba again. This time, the enlightened Simba niftily parries the attack by ducking swiftly.
Incidentally, often we find ourselves being harried and hounded by horrendous memories — related with past failure, disappointment, some sort of loss, etc, etc. The more we try sprinting away from those ‘stinging thoughts’, the more severely they’d be chasing us! The moment we stop and spunkily face it, with “So what” stance, soon they’d slither away!
In fact, this “Run or Learn” principle holds good in many cases. Like, consider any new work or activity we plunge into, and that which precipitate in a pathetic debacle! Here, either we can chicken out by running away from it, or perceive the past mistake as profoundly edifying, and pursue harder not to fall into that pit of failure again. Remember the dictum, “once bitten, twice shy”? (Read it as “once stung by severe failure, several times more smarter”!)
Now, with this attitude, wouldn’t one move towards dazzling light of success in life, leaving behind the darkness of dreary past, just as the mighty Simba marches towards monumental glory, by vanquishing his mean, menacing rival?!