My kids have been watching a lot of Disney channel lately. Sometimes between shows, they show short versions of old cartoons starring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy. I don’t know if it’s just the way they edit them, but there seems to be a trend in the types of stories these characters feature in.
Mickey, for example, totally forgets about a big, important date with Minnie. He hurriedly dresses, but on 
his way, Pluto tracks him down and accidentally . . . well, mauls him. He arrives wearing a tin can instead of a top hat, his tuxedo in tatters. As he turns to yell at Pluto for ruining the evening, Mickey realizes Pluto has just been trying to give him the tickets he left at home—and the dance is a “Hard Times” party. What looks like a disaster miraculously becomes a happy ending.
Goofy faces similar mishaps. My favorite Goofy cartoon of all time is “The Art of Skiing,” but just about all of his cartoons feature the same shtick: a lot of falling, injuries, bad luck, confusion, misguided attempts at following instructions, etc. In the end of “The Art of Skiing,” Goofy ends up in bed—he’s lucky to be alive. He made it through the day and took the hilarity in stride.
Donald, too, suffers from bad luck. One cartoon they often show is Donald following the directions on a radio cooking show to make waffles. Instead of baking powder(?), however, he uses rubber cement. His waffle batter basically attacks him, destroys his house, and causes him endless frustration. All of his efforts to get rid of the offending batter only make things worse—and make him more mad. In the end, he goes berserk, runs to the radio station, and beats up the show’s host. In another cartoon, he ends up trapped after fighting a folding bed all night. The closest he comes to winning is occasionally venting his frustrations, but he and everything around him end up hurt and broken.
But let’s be realistic: I’m no Mickey Mouse. I’m not even a Goofy. I’m a Donald. When things get rough, it seems like every effort I make just digs me deeper. And in the end, I’m a screaming, tantruming mess—and that doesn’t really make anything better either.
And since we’re being realistic now, it’s probably not realistic to expect that everything is going to magically be okay in one instant—especially not without any effort on my part. Note that all three characters have bad things happen. I keep thinking if I can just get to a Mickey Mouse Life, I won’t have problems. That’s just not true.
Maybe I can’t magically have everything go my way. But I can work on changing my attitude so I take my problems as they come and still be happy to be alive. Mickey Mouse might not be my future, but maybe one day, I can work my way up to Goofy.
What do you think? Which category do you fall in?