The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles edged out the Transformers, the ThunderCats, the Wild West Cowboys of Moo Mesa, and the SilverHawks as my childhood favorite cartoon... my brothers and I watched Ninja Turtles every chance we could, from 1987 to 1993
. Up until the third live action movie... not long after, we moved on to other activities
In late 1996, I accepted my calling into Christian ministry in high school, but my relatively soft-spoken nature, small stature, and youthful countenance gave people the impression that I was much younger and less trustworthy than I actually was. These obstacles seemed insurmountable for quite some time, when getting older or more established people to take me seriously. Instead, they assumed I was an overzealous kid.
This, plus my undergrad "Religion" degree turning out to be more of a daily debate, repeating every semester proved discouraging, to say the least. I even had to spend time out of school take a sabbatical of sorts, and then fill the requirements to return as a full time student, only to see most of my friends had graduated or transferred. I didn't have the same dynamic with my new friends. Finding my new bearings was challenging.
A friend recognized the discouraged young leader paradigm working in me and, to offer me some encouragement, showed me season four, episode fourteen of the 2K3 revamp of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. I was blown away! It begins with Leonardo narrating about his travelling companion, "some gross slob who attached himself to me like a bloated tick ." who turns out to "the Ancient One" who trained Splinter's sensei, Hamato Yoshi.
Over the course of the episode, the Ancient One passing gas 15x. When Leo shows discomfort, he rebuts, "It's just air!" One such methane bomb alerts "demon ghosts coming down the trail" to Leo's camp site with the Ancient One. Overly tense about losing, Leonardo engages the tengu who almost decapitate him. Unconcerned, the Ancient One helps himself to the chocolate that Leonardo brought with him. When Leo asks for help, the Ancient One suggests surrendering. In a Raph-like moment, Leo says, "But that's stupid! To surrender is not the warrior's way!" "You won't be much of a warrior without a head!" exclaims the Ancient One between chomps. Leo surrenders just before he loses his life and the tengu depart. Leo still hasn't realized his travelling companion's identity. The next morning, they resume their journey. We follow along as he eventually teaches Leonardo a very important lesson that everyone, especially leaders, need to know, that "If there was nothing more you could have done, why do you punish yourself so?" The lesson I learned was essentially my older brother now calls, "controlling the controllables." Having seen more episodes since, I like the 2K3 revamp much better than the 1987 story and the new Nickelodeon version. And, on the day that YouTube allowed downloads, I downloaded all seven seasons even the Fast Forward, Back to the Sewers, Mayhem from Mutant Island mini-episodes, and Turtles Forever.
This, plus my undergrad "Religion" degree turning out to be more of a daily debate, repeating every semester proved discouraging, to say the least. I even had to spend time out of school take a sabbatical of sorts, and then fill the requirements to return as a full time student, only to see most of my friends had graduated or transferred. I didn't have the same dynamic with my new friends. Finding my new bearings was challenging.
A friend recognized the discouraged young leader paradigm working in me and, to offer me some encouragement, showed me season four, episode fourteen of the 2K3 revamp of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. I was blown away! It begins with Leonardo narrating about his travelling companion, "some gross slob who attached himself to me like a bloated tick ." who turns out to "the Ancient One" who trained Splinter's sensei, Hamato Yoshi.
Over the course of the episode, the Ancient One passing gas 15x. When Leo shows discomfort, he rebuts, "It's just air!" One such methane bomb alerts "demon ghosts coming down the trail" to Leo's camp site with the Ancient One. Overly tense about losing, Leonardo engages the tengu who almost decapitate him. Unconcerned, the Ancient One helps himself to the chocolate that Leonardo brought with him. When Leo asks for help, the Ancient One suggests surrendering. In a Raph-like moment, Leo says, "But that's stupid! To surrender is not the warrior's way!" "You won't be much of a warrior without a head!" exclaims the Ancient One between chomps. Leo surrenders just before he loses his life and the tengu depart. Leo still hasn't realized his travelling companion's identity. The next morning, they resume their journey. We follow along as he eventually teaches Leonardo a very important lesson that everyone, especially leaders, need to know, that "If there was nothing more you could have done, why do you punish yourself so?" The lesson I learned was essentially my older brother now calls, "controlling the controllables." Having seen more episodes since, I like the 2K3 revamp much better than the 1987 story and the new Nickelodeon version. And, on the day that YouTube allowed downloads, I downloaded all seven seasons even the Fast Forward, Back to the Sewers, Mayhem from Mutant Island mini-episodes, and Turtles Forever.