So, about me. I am a bit of an anglofile. Not crazy amounts. But just a connection I have felt since I can remember. I am sure it had more to do with Adina and Patsy and less to do with the Benny Hill and Monty Python episodes I found after hours on PBS. More about Jonathan Price on Jumping Jack Flash. A little to do with some sisters by the name of Bronte, some woman named Austin, and a man named Darcy. And the people that asked, Are you being served?
So long before Ted Lasso came out, I was dreaming of retiring to a little village in England. It was a show that I could enjoy with my oldest, and as I finished season 4, I came to realize I enjoy the show as a whole, but more than that, the way the writers inserted impactful lines throughout the show. It is funny, and the characters are endearing, but it is more about the timing of some random life lesson that comes at you suddenly through the words.
This last episode was no different, and Rebecca stole the show for me this time.
A woman sees a scorpion drowning in the river, and she tries to help it over and over again and keeps getting stung. And a passerby says, “Why do you keep bothering to help something that hurts you over and over again?” And the woman says, “It’s in the scorpion’s nature to sting. Just as it’s in my nature to save. Why would I change my nature just because of theirs?”
Sometimes it is just in my nature to save and to fix. It is in my nature to give grace, give chances, give love. No matter what, I will always hold friendship and kindness in my heart for people, especially those I see appreciate it. I think sometimes we lose that. I think it is important for us to have boundaries and cut off people when we need peace, but it takes a lot for me to do that. I have trouble thinking anyone is irredeemable. But I can give myself space and let them take space as well. (This isn’t about anyone in particular, just something that this parable made me think about.)
This next bit isn’t that unrelated.
She died doing what she loved. And the rest of us, we’re all still… in it, aren’t we? We laugh, we hurt, we fall, we get back up. [sighs] We’re a mess. And that is… fantastic. ‘Cause… being messy just means… being alive. And we could all do with being a bit more alive. [whispering] So what are you waiting for?
We all have those messy bits of ourselves. Maybe we can stand up more than we fall down, but we are all alive. We are all out here doing the best we can, living the life we were given. Let’s not stop living. Let’s not stop breathing and reaching for happiness in any way we can.
But we’ve got to take risks, haven’t we, Rebecca? Otherwise, what’s the fucking point? I deserve for good things to happen in my life.
[Rebecca sighs]
[Roy] Don’t I?
[Rebecca] [sighs, clicks tongue] You’re right.
[Roy] [chuckles] No. You’re right. You’re the one who said that. And then you said… [imitating Rebecca] “Get out of your own way, man. This whole woe-is-me thing you’re doing is fucking ponderous. Mmm.”
Just get out of your own way. Take the risk. Do what you have to do to be happy. You only have this one life to live, maybe.
