LIFE LESSONS FROM CLASSIC CARTOON CHARACTERS

Most of us grew up watching cartoons as children. Tom and Jerry , has beyond a doubt has to be one of the most popular and generational crossing cartoon. The rivalry between the two has spanned over 50 years. Most episodes would begin with Tom scheming on how he would eat Jerry, and no matter how hard he tried Jerry always found some way to escape, even after Tom had succeeded in swallowing him. In the Looney Toons, there have been many similar rivalries.
Sylvester and Tweety , Bugs and Elmer Fudd,Bugs and Daffy and the Road Runner and Wild E Coyote.
Elmer Fudd has hunted Bugs for many years without much success, but he keeps coming back to get that scwewy wabbit. The hunt for the road runner by Wild E Coyote has to be one of the most determined in cartoon history. He usually has a perfect plan , which should by all logic work, but some way some how , the road runner manages to get away . Sylvester has a determined launch to make tweety his lunch ,and sometimes he's just minding his own business, but he somehow manages to get into trouble.
What is the point of all this cartoon referencing? What do all these rivalries have to do with anything in life. Taking a look at Elmer ,Sylvester,Tom and Wild E Coyote have in common? Tenacity, they all have a goal that they want to achieve, lunch. And no matter how many times they get outsmarted , bashed ,slammed into the side of mountains or squashed by anvils they keep going after their goal, because they can see it in their mind's eye. They know what they want , and they are not going to let a few obstacles, whether it be the IQ of their opponent, the height of what they are striving for or the fact that what they are after is moving at a faster speed than they can keep up with, they find a way to do so.
What about Road Runner,Jerry,Tweety ,and Bugs Bunny, they are the ultimate survivors. No matter what their hunters use to come against them they always find a way to survive. No matter how many times they get trapped they always find a means of escape. Think about it , have you ever watched a Looney Toons cartoon, in which Wild E Coyote succeeded in completely capturing the road runner, or that Bugs didn't escape Elmer's capture? No matter the situation they both exhibit their nature, Bugs the nature to survive at all costs and Elmer's on tenacity no matter how many times he previously failed.
Another group of cartoon characters i greatly admire are Top Cat (TC) and Yogi Bear , these guys are what I'd like to call, "The Original Kings of Hustle" . Top Cat is an entrepreneur , who brims with confidence and never allows anything get him down. When he faces an obstacle he finds a way to overcome it. Whether it be the lack of money, assets or staff or human obstacles in the form of officer Dibble, his brain begins to work and he overcomes it in some manner, and despite all his ventures collapsing he he keeps on trying, that spirit within him ever dying.
The same goes for Jellystone Park resident who is "smarter than the average bear". Yogi is the mammal that had exquisite taste long before Remy rat. Unlike the other bears that were satisfied with fruits nuts and berries , he longed for more, picnic baskets in particularly . Despite all the obstacles before him in form of Ranger Smith who represented authority figures , and his fellow bears who were satisfied with what they could rummage around , he wanted better things.Things that people told him were not meant for bears, out of his league and he should stick to what he knows. Yogi never let any of that veer his determination, and due to his perseverance he more often than not succeeded.
Little boys when playing "cops and robbers" or "tag" fall down many times and get back up without a second thought. Those of us that played some form of sport and loved it , no doubt at some point in time lost a game or missed a shot, but did we quit because of that, no. Those that love professional wrestling (WWE) , when you favourite star is in the ring and he's taking a beating , we know and expect that he is going to make a come back and win the match.
Life is not very much different, like the little kids or the wrestler that falls down or is losing, we do not just give up and quit.There are going to obstacles in our way. Like as babies we gradually learnt to walk, gravity was an obstacle, we fell down several times, that didn't stop us from trying, today we are walking without giving it a second thought, or even remembering how difficult it was fro us to learn. Muhammad Ali , is still known as he greatest ,after over thirty years out of the ring. He took some hits and was knocked down both inside and outside the ring, but it was his tenacity and determination that kept him going, and that is why he remains one of the most respected names in sports history and will do so for years to come.
Like those cartoon characters that kept going despite several knock downs , if we have a strong enough vision , we should not allow any failure to make us quit. Most of the successful people in history and in the world today had so many failure it's a wonder that they kept on going. Col Sanders the founder of KFC had about 300 rejections for his recipe, Abraham Lincoln failed in getting elected for many different offices ,JK Rowling received many rejection slips, Steven King threw away the manuscript for Carrie, because of so many rejections. Bing Crosby was written off by a casting director. Are you seeing a pattern here?
It's not going to be easy , but despite how many anvils get dropped on us, and no matter how many mountain sides we smash into. If our dreams are truly worth it, we should not give up.