Dumbo's Feather

In 1941, Disney released an amazing movie - Dumbo. And after just a little research, I am amazed that, for the most part, the movie was presented, and generally accepted, quite literally. But it occurred to me several years ago, that the movie may in fact be a metaphor for many things in our lives - specifically any external influence we believe allows us to achieve more or do more than we might be able to do on our own. This is hardly a difficult conclusion to reach. But I think we can take this metaphor and use it to examine those areas of our lives that we cling to, because we have little or no faith in ourselves.

It is probably no surprise to find out that I honestly believe that "Church" represents one of mankind's greatest feathers. Organized religion thrives on teaching us that we are not capable of strength on our own, that we must rely on God. I firmly believe that Church provides us no power which is not already within us. But like Dumbo's feather, it does provide a value to those who do not recognize that ability within themselves. So it's important to understand that I am not stating that Church has no value. I am stating that its value is provided by the individual who gives it value. And of course this subject could easily dove-tail into a historical treatise on the method in which Organized Religion enforced its control and retained its power throughout the centuries.

And this is what thinkers, like Nietzsche, had so many problems with - namely that Judeo-Christian values promote and place value on the weak willed. So in many ways, this is the Existentialist in me...

I want people to re-evaluate their lives and begin to understand what their feathers are. I'm not suggesting that we always have the means to cast off our feathers, but certainly that recognizing them is certainly the first step. There are many feathers in our lives... Some more obvious than others. Alcohol and drugs are easy. And that isn't to imply that alcohol and drugs are always feathers (one could argue that when used as a form of escapism - it probably isn't acting so much as a feather...). But what about friends and neighbors? What about hobbies? What about our jobs and families? Do we value these things in and of themselves? Or do we rely on them to to provide us a life or meaning we would otherwise struggle to find? In this way - we diminish the value of these aspects of our lives... They become an unconscious "means to an end". "With them (with my feather), I can fly." The value becomes - what it does for me.

So the important message is... The analogy of Dumbo's Feather is not meant to diminish the importance of these aspects of our lives - but to begin to understand their real value on our lives and the value of these things on their own merit.

Then again, I could be completely wrong...