Life Lessons Revealed: Animaniacs

Over the years I have learned that life can teach you things in the most inventive ways and that, if you are open to it, you can learn from almost anything. I recently had an experience when I saw life in one of the most obscure places: a cartoon. Here is a Life Lesson Revealed.

Netflix recently added Animaniacs, a cartoon series I loved when I was a child. If you’ve never seen the show before, here is the premise: When the Warner Brothers studio first opened the artists were pressed to create new characters and thus created the Warner Brothers Yakko and Wacko, and their sister, Dot. The Warner Brothers and the Warner sister prove to be a fail as they were uncontrollable and their movies made no sense. To recover from the mistake the studio decided to lock away all the Warners’ movies in a vault, to hide the Warners themselves in a water tower, and to deny their existence to the public. The plot of the show is that the Warners escape from the water tower and are chased by the security guard to be hidden once again. During each episode the show features skits of other characters doing whatever it is they do then suddenly the Warners come running across the screen as they are chased by the guard to remind you of the real plot of the show and that the show is really about them.

Where’s the life lesson? Let me explain.

Hopefully by now you have some vision or goal you are working towards whether big or small. If you do, you will find that challenges arise that hinder your pursuit of that vision or goal. When we experience those challenges we are often put in a place where we feel like we have to make something happen. We need a solution to a problem and we need it right away. Herein lays the analogy…

When we are pressed to make a decision, sometimes we don’t quite think it through and end of making a decision that not in our best interest (creating the Warners). After we find that the decision is causing more problems, instead of bringing resolution we try to get things under control and cover our tracks (hiding the Warners and their movies away). Then, we try to act like the decision never happened and to move forward with our lives (denying the Warners’ existence to the public and showing skits of other characters). Sometimes, however, our poorly-made decision has had so much impact that the residuals pop up in our lives when we least expect it (Warners escape) and, when left unresolved, we find ourselves trying to catch the lingering negative effects so we can hide them away again (Warners being chased through skits). We are able to get a hold of things most times and save face but when we continue to let things go unresolved eventually “the Warners” escape again.

Now, think about a poor decision you’ve made in the past and that still affects you today, can you see the parallel? As I watch the show I can even see traits that impact our decision-making in the Warner characters themselves: Yakko who talks way too much, Wacko who eats everything and leaves nothing for others, and Dot who thinks she can get away with things just because she’s so cute…WOW!

Click on your Netflix and check it out for yourself.