My granddaughter’s favorite movie is “Frozen.” Of course I sat through the movie with her, but I did not have the same emotional experience or get out of it what she did. The movie’s main song is “Let It Go.” The song had a completely different meaning for my little granddaughter than it did for me. In the movie, Princess Elsa has magical powers and accidentally injures her younger sister Anna. Their parents, the king and queen of Arendelle, seek help to heal Anna, but Elsa withdraws from the public because she is afraid of hurting others until she is able to control her powers. “Frozen” is an adaptation of Hans Cristian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen,” and hopefully kids understand what the movie’s real intrinsic value is. While the songs from the movie are cute, they remind me of some real-life situations I encountered in my construction career.
Let it go
When I hear the words “let it go,” I’m reminded of a time when I was promoted to a new position in administration. It was tough letting go of my old job. My contractor employer was growing so rapidly, it was difficult to grasp it all and keep everything under control. Our infrastructure was bulging with all the new work coming to us. Many of the “old timers” were moved up, and a new crop of young, inexperienced managers and engineers were moved into new positions as leaders. I’m sure all of us were looking over our shoulders to see if our replacements were doing as “good” a job as we did, and — as critics — it was easy to point out their mistakes.
My boss at that time told me of his dad’s retirement from a local petrochemical plant. He said as his dad was packing up his boxes of books, knickknacks and memorabilia from his office, he found a memo he had written earlier to the company management complaining about the state of the workforce. It read, “They are young, uneducated, and many are completely worthless to us in the plant. The only thing we can do with this new workforce is go downhill.” What a dismal forecast it seemed. The rest of the memo told the facts. He wrote it in 1946, and the new workforce were men and women coming home from World War II. Yes, they were young and uneducated, but they were the heroes of our country. They had beaten back America’s enemies, and that changed the world. These kids were educated in warfare; it was all about guns, tanks, ships and jeeps. They were disciplined and hardened and became the forerunners of the modern-day plant operators and managers.
Looks like today
Every time I think of that memo, I think of today’s workforce with their ear buds, checking Facebook and Instagram while texting and focusing on social communication. What a diverse change from the 1946 group. Or is it? It’s my opinion kids are kids, and yes, they are young and uneducated in what we know. But they are not uneducated in modern things. I can get my grandson to set up all my new electronic gadgets I can’t. I would not call him uneducated, even though he has accomplished little in his short career. We are just educated in different things.
If there is a message to be learned from today’s kids, it’s change is required and comes whether one is ready or not. You can’t live in the past. Today must be accepted. Yesterday can be remembered but not relived. Looking back at the pro-motion I mentioned, I had to let it go. It was not easy. Letting go hurts; it’s hard and means we give up the past. But that’s why the sun rises; it’s a new day, a new time, and without change, we’d still be living in a cave and wearing animal skins.
Love is an open door
Another song from Frozen is “Love is an Open Door.” It is about a series of doors being opened but with no advocate to assist in getting in. It’s like the real world, where we work a career for years with few doors open to us. Then all of a sudden a co-worker or supervisor notices your talents and skills and opens the door for a new venture. It can happen to all of us. When it does, step into the door with faith and don’t look back. Be like Elsa and just “let it go.”
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