Camp Lazlo
Ok, so, Garreth has introduced me to this new cartoon called Camp Lazlo. Its about these animals that go to these two summer-type camps, one for the boys and one for the girls. Anyway, it is a fantastic cartoon, probably one of the better ones on tv today. So, anyway, today we were watching this one episode that we saw the other day. However, today there was this theme to it that kinda stuck out in my mind b/c it seemed so relevant to some real life things we have been dealing with and talking about.
In this particular episode, one of the campers (I forget his name, but the counselor refers to him as the mutated beaver) decides, as a form of revenge for beating everyone in some sort of contest, that he is going to form a "I hate Lazlo" club. The premise of the club is (basically self explanitory, but for some of you) to come together and name all these reasons why they hate Lazlo, make Lazlo feel excluded, hated, etc. When Lazlo finds out that there is a club being formed and he isn't a part of it he begins to inquire. At this point the mutated beaver tells him that he can't be a part of the club and that he has nothing. Well, Lazlo decides to take this "nothing" and form his own club, aptly titled The Nothing Club. At first all the other campers were like, "Hey, we don't see anything," blah, blah, blah. And Lazlo counters with, "its the newest club," and such as that. However, it was merely four lines drawn in the ground in the shape of a rectangle. No walls, no roof, no concrete slab. Well, soon his friends and fellow campers catch on to this concept and soon join the nothing club. OK! So, where am I going with this?
I have come to the conclusion that nothing is a state of perception. Its all in how you see it. Much like all the other campers, in the beginning, if you think you have nothing then you probably do. However, if you are like Lazlo, and even being told you have nothing, you chose to make something out of nothing, then you really have something. Wow, that really didn't make much sense did it? Here is a better, more real life, example. This is all hearsay, but this is the story I have heard: a collection was taken up for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Something to the tune of $1,000. However, one of the people in charge of this collection supposedly made the comment that $1,000 wasn't gonna do anything to help out anyway, so, they decided to give the money to a church and let them delegate the money to the relief effort. (This statement may or may not be true and that is irrelevant. So, I don't want any messages telling me how wrong I may or may not be about such statement.) The point is this: to people that, by all appearances, have nothing to give them anything is huge. We are talking about people who have no homes, no clothes, no food, no money, no electricity, no water, some no families, nothing. For a person who has no water, ask them how much a bottle of water means to them. How many cases of water could you buy with $1,000? Now, granted $1,000 isn't going to save the whole nation in the wake of such a natural disaster. But, it can do something. It can do a lot of something. Ask a person with no food how many canned goods they could buy with $1,000. How many jars of baby food and packs of diapers could a homeless mother buy with $1,000?
So, still, what exactly am I trying to say? At times like this we tend to think big picture. Oh, we've gotta have millions of dollars in order to make a dent in what our country needs to recover from this. That is true. But, don't underestimate the power that your $10 might have. Just think about how far you can make a five dollar bill stretch and you know you can get another one. These people don't know when they will see their next paycheck come in.
How did I get here from that stupid cartoon? Just like Lazlo, it doesn't take four walls, some fancy decorations, music, etc to make a happenin' club. All it took was the right perspective and his nothing soon became the hottest something at camp.
In this particular episode, one of the campers (I forget his name, but the counselor refers to him as the mutated beaver) decides, as a form of revenge for beating everyone in some sort of contest, that he is going to form a "I hate Lazlo" club. The premise of the club is (basically self explanitory, but for some of you) to come together and name all these reasons why they hate Lazlo, make Lazlo feel excluded, hated, etc. When Lazlo finds out that there is a club being formed and he isn't a part of it he begins to inquire. At this point the mutated beaver tells him that he can't be a part of the club and that he has nothing. Well, Lazlo decides to take this "nothing" and form his own club, aptly titled The Nothing Club. At first all the other campers were like, "Hey, we don't see anything," blah, blah, blah. And Lazlo counters with, "its the newest club," and such as that. However, it was merely four lines drawn in the ground in the shape of a rectangle. No walls, no roof, no concrete slab. Well, soon his friends and fellow campers catch on to this concept and soon join the nothing club. OK! So, where am I going with this?
I have come to the conclusion that nothing is a state of perception. Its all in how you see it. Much like all the other campers, in the beginning, if you think you have nothing then you probably do. However, if you are like Lazlo, and even being told you have nothing, you chose to make something out of nothing, then you really have something. Wow, that really didn't make much sense did it? Here is a better, more real life, example. This is all hearsay, but this is the story I have heard: a collection was taken up for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Something to the tune of $1,000. However, one of the people in charge of this collection supposedly made the comment that $1,000 wasn't gonna do anything to help out anyway, so, they decided to give the money to a church and let them delegate the money to the relief effort. (This statement may or may not be true and that is irrelevant. So, I don't want any messages telling me how wrong I may or may not be about such statement.) The point is this: to people that, by all appearances, have nothing to give them anything is huge. We are talking about people who have no homes, no clothes, no food, no money, no electricity, no water, some no families, nothing. For a person who has no water, ask them how much a bottle of water means to them. How many cases of water could you buy with $1,000? Now, granted $1,000 isn't going to save the whole nation in the wake of such a natural disaster. But, it can do something. It can do a lot of something. Ask a person with no food how many canned goods they could buy with $1,000. How many jars of baby food and packs of diapers could a homeless mother buy with $1,000?
So, still, what exactly am I trying to say? At times like this we tend to think big picture. Oh, we've gotta have millions of dollars in order to make a dent in what our country needs to recover from this. That is true. But, don't underestimate the power that your $10 might have. Just think about how far you can make a five dollar bill stretch and you know you can get another one. These people don't know when they will see their next paycheck come in.
How did I get here from that stupid cartoon? Just like Lazlo, it doesn't take four walls, some fancy decorations, music, etc to make a happenin' club. All it took was the right perspective and his nothing soon became the hottest something at camp.