One of my favorite Christmas movies of all time is Rudolf. Not for all the reasons you might think. You see, I do love the way Rudolf fly’s, stands up for his friends and tries to protect his people. All of these things are great story arcs. However, my favorite character is Yukon Cornelius.
Yukon is such a character, the whole movie would be different without him. What I find curious about him is while he was a great explorer, he was just a good guy.
He shielded the misfit friends from the bumble with no need for a thank you or repayment. He protected them from harm and made invitation into his camp. All the while, still searching for silver and gold. He sang songs of silver and gold. Spoke of being rich and how the land was chock full of the precious metals he so desired.
We desire so many things in this life. We search and strive for happiness to quench the deprivation that we create within ourselves for things we do not have.
We focus so heavily upon what we want, what we need, what is best for us and so much of the time forget those beside us, behind us, before us and charged to us.
We create our “unhappiness” our discontentness through our own self realized choice of lack.
I reject the idea of happiness. I would say Yukon would too. Being happy, is often fulfilling desire. Desires, are mostly selfish. If Yukon was fulfilling his desire, he would have left Rudolf for dead, however, he did not. He acted in spite of his desire, he made a choice. He chose to value something more than gold.
For a man who is known as the “greatest prospector in the north”. You would think he wouldn’t make the time. That his motivations would not be delayed. Yet, he did. He chose what was best for others over and over and over again.
In the end, even his enemy became his friend. Even his enemy found something that was worth more than gold.
Purpose and community.
Those two things do not happen on accident. They happen on purpose with no expectation of the either side.
Peace.
Zack Schuyler
VP of Student Experience
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