I’m a mean ole lion!
Proverbs 28:1 The wicked run
away when no one is chasing them, but the godly are as bold as lions.
The Wiz (1978) is one of my
all time favorite movies. I think I was
six when the movie came out. I actually
don’t recall seeing it at the movie theater, but in elementary school if you
went to Phyllis E Williams, in Largo Maryland, we watched that movie it seemed every last
week of school, when the teachers were tired of us and we were tired of them
and we were all just waiting for the summer break to begin. Wow, now that I think about it I have to
laugh because this movie was on an actual movie projector – There was no VCR
excuse me I mean Beta movie players.
I loved the Wiz for so many
reasons. I had seen the Wizard of Oz
several times, but the Wiz; it just mesmerized me from the music to the dancing
even the lines were great. And of course
my “Poster Boyfriend” Michael Jackson was in it, so this was a must see. If you’ve never seen the Wiz its basically
the Wizard of Oz with pizzazz!
Just this past week I was in
the car and decided that I was tired of listening to the radio and all the commercials. So I broke out my CD folder and pulled out
the Wiz soundtrack, and popped it in the player. My favorite song on the cd is track 13 – “I’m
a mean ole lion.”
You’ve got to understand the
Lion in the Wiz was bad (and I mean good).
His Lion suit was a three piece suit with a pimp style collar and he had
swagger. I remember jumping about ten
feet when he burst out of a statue to scare Dorothy, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow. He strutted around singing that he would turn
their day in to night and snarl because he was a mean ole Lion.
Well Toto (yes same name as
in The Wizard oz) wasn’t having it. He
went after that Lion like any little dog with a little dog complex would do! All of the Lion’s bravado was gone. He coward back and the crew quickly learned
that the supposed mean ole lion was a big fraidy cat. Instead of bullying him (word for you young
people out there) They decided to partner up with the Lion, to see the Wiz so
that the Lion could get some courage.
If you don’t know this particular
version of the Wiz, well things go pretty bad after they befriend the
Lion. There is a man with some creepy puppets
in the subway, trash cans start attacking them and even the poles come after
them. Don’t even get me started on the
Monkey Motorcycle gang that’s after them.
The lion in seventies terms decides he’s going to“split” and runs the
fastest from this entire crazy scary scene.
When he looks back he sees his friends are far behind him and are
calling for help. He runs back to help them scared all the while
and rescues his friends. When faced with
a challenge that didn’t involve him but involved his new found friends he
dropped his fear or maybe he took his fears with him but he took action! He was suddenly a mean ole lion. Fighting to save his friends.
Martin Luther King Jr. said “The
ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and
conveniences, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. “
Trust in the God given Gifts you have and let
your character SHINE! Even in the dark
places when you want to run and hide!
** Here is the link clip of
the Lion singing “I’m a mean ole Lion.”
Amen to that!!!!
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to swallow fear, but when you do it can feul the fire.
DeleteMany blessings to you