Panda Ponderings Part One: Personal Proficiencies



   Ever since the movie Kung Fu Panda came out, a strange phenomenon has occurred.  Everyone, quite literally, has been comparing me to Po, the very panda himself.  Personally, I don't see it.  I mean, he's a slightly overweight, off-the-wall goofball, and I'm... Well, maybe I can see it now.  Either way, it's been happening, and I really don't have a problem with it.  Mostly because I think we can all learn a valuable lesson from the big lovable panda.



A plethora of panda paraphernalia.
All sent to me by other people.  Sweet.



   See, Po's story is just awesome. An ancient legend about the "Dragon Warrior" who would deliver the world from evil is all that occupied his mind.  Now, as unlikely a candidate as he was, Po was selected through a series of freak incidents to be the Dragon Warrior.  Here he was, an uncoordinated, somewhat lazy (Okay, the similarities are eerie now) panda, chosen to be the savior of ancient China.  All of the other Kung Fu masters, or Furious Five, were flabbergasted, and I'm sure Po was no less surprised.



   Po tried the very best he could to fit in with the rest of the Furious Five, but nothing was working.  He was responsible for fending off the attack of the evil Tai Lung, but he wasn't becoming the Dragon Warrior everyone was looking for.  He trained the hardest possible and went through all sorts of pain, but at the end of the day, he was still an uncoordinated fat panda.  Feeling dejected, he left the dojo and found his father, who is a goose (Don't ask me, ask Dreamworks).  His father was a successful noodle vendor ("We are noodle folk!"), who always hailed his secret ingredient.  However, when he confided in Po, the panda learned one of the most important lessons of his life:  There is no secret ingredient.



   All the time, Po was looking to be something he was not, and it didn't get him anywhere.  When he finally got the "Dragon Scroll", the thing that was supposed to reveal all of the secrets to being the Dragon Warrior, it was only a reflective sheet.  In time, Po realized that it was exactly what he needed.  The secret to being the Dragon Warrior was just to be himself!  There is no secret ingredient!  He used his own strengths and talents (which included a well-timed belly bump) and "Skadoosh"ed Tai Lung out of existence. 



   I really think this story applies to all of us, me especially.  Too often we compare ourselves with others.  We think, "I wish I could play piano as well as so-and-so," or, "If only I could draw as well as what's-his-face."  We fool ourselves into thinking that for some reason or another, our talents and abilities aren't good enough.  And we can get down on ourselves because of it. 

   The truth is completely different.  We learn in the scriptures that everyone has been given their certain gifts for a very specific reason.  In Corinthians, Paul compares the body of the saints to an actual body, and all of the different people to body parts.  He explains that no one part is any more important than the other in the following scripture:

 "If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?

 And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him." (1 Corinthians 12:15-18)



Portrait of a Panda



God has given you your talents and abilities.  Don't ever underestimate that.  We need to magnify them and use them to their fullest, but don't think you're lacking just because somebody else does something better than you.  Chances are, that "somebody else" is thinking the same thing about you.  So, if you're a panda, like me, realize you are one because God needs you to be one! And own it!  You can become your own Dragon Warrior.

Much love,



Elder Sharples