Olive:
Grandpa, I’m scared.
Grandpa:
Why? You’re gonna knock ‘em dead tomorrow. They won’t know what hit ‘em.
Olive:
Grandpa, am I a loser?
Grandpa:
Naw… who told you that?
Olive:
I’m just scared because… Daddy hates losers.
Grandpa:
Do you know what a real loser is? A real loser is someone who is so afraid of not winning, he doesn’t even try. Now, you’re trying right?
Olive:
Right.
Grandpa:
Well then you’re not a loser. We’re gonna have fun tomorrow, right?
Olive:
Right.
Grandpa:
We can tell them all to go to hell.
So many people give me grief because Little Miss Sunshine is one of my favorite movies, but a many people miss my favorite scene above.
Here we have a little girl who is put under immense pressure by all of her family to win, the most trivial of things, a child beauty contest. She is bombarded with her idols of pageant winners (that she doesn’t look like in the least) and her father’s daily message of “You’re either a winner or a loser” and “We won’t go unless you will win”. She seems to be a girl with a dream that she just isn’t suited for.
In response, we have a light of truth shining from her Grandpa: a heroine snorting, porn addicted, fowl mouthed old man. His wisdom incongruently rises from deep in his heart out of protection of his granddaughter’s self esteem and innocence. It seems out of character, and yet, more like the grandpa you have/wish you had.
It is a strange scene illustrating childlike hope.
I find myself in both of these characters simultaneously. Sometimes I find myself dreaming that I can change the lives of youth around the world only to have that dream smashed by a skillion rejects from job youth positions. I look around sometime at all the “cool places” people are going and think, “what am I doing wrong”?
Then, the rugged old man within brings me the truth. “Am I doing what I can do, right now?” (“*sigh* yeah…”) Well then, you are changing people, even when you don’t think you are, because of who God has made you to be. I am changing people even if it doesn’t look like what I “wish it was”.
If you find yourself dreaming, good. What are we doing about our dreams?
What are we hoping in? What injustices are we wanting to make right with God as our foundation?
And when opportunity comes for your dreams to come to fruition, will you be a winner and kindly tell all haters to "go to hell"?
"I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that don't work"–Edison
