Take a Look in the Mirror

Early in the movie, Six Days Seven Nights, the crusty charter pilot, Quinn Harris, shares an important insight with Robin Monroe—the young professional who has recently arrived with her fiancé:

Quinn: They come here looking for the magic, hoping to find romance, when they can't find it anywhere else.
Robin: Maybe they will.
Quinn: It's an island, babe! If you didn't bring it here, you won't find it here!

That’s important to remember whenever you are embarking on a journey. It’s the reason you want to travel with trusted companions; but it is also a reminder that it is worthwhile to reflect on the person who is always with you. As Confucius said, “And remember, no matter where you go, there you are.”

That’s good news for some folks, but more than a few folks spend huge amounts of time, energy and money trying to reinvent themselves. Perhaps they recall the pronouncement of that wise swamp ‘possum, Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

In the introduction to Pogo Papers Walt Kelly tried to explain what he meant by this:

...Specializations and markings of individuals everywhere abound in such profusion that major idiosyncrasies can be properly ascribed to the mass. Traces of nobility, gentleness and courage persist in all people, do what we will to stamp out the trend. So, too, do those characteristics which are ugly. It is just unfortunate that in the clumsy hands of the cartoonist all traits become ridiculous, leading to a certain amount of self conscious expostulation and the desire to join battle.

There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand. Resolve, then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving and tiny blasts of tiny trumpets, we shall meet the enemy, and not only may he be ours, he may be us.

So as we make this journey of hope, don’t be discouraged that you can’t get away from who you are. What Walt Kelly said may be true, “We are all of us responsible for our myriad pollutions, public, private and political.” That’s our call to confession.

Just remember this journey also serves as an opportunity to recall that God created you in his image. God’s nature is within you; and by God’s grace, that nature can become a greater and greater source of the basis for your hope.