Do you know Thomas the Engine?
If you’re a mommy, Thomas the Engine is not a distant memory. There is a whole theme park dedicated to Thomas and his train community. Thomas is an engine that cares about his fellow engines and is really about doing the best job he can do. Thomas likes to feel important, at least he likes to feel like what he is doing is important. Overall, he’s doing the best he can. He gets frustrated at times, but everything usually works out in the end of a Thomas story.
Do you remember “The Little Engine that Could?”
Somewhat contrasting with Thomas, ‘The Little Engine’ was being asked for help, wasn’t sure if she could do it… but nevertheless was willing. The Little Engine didn’t really have a posse of engines around her to care about, or even anything to compare her actions to like Thomas did. From what the story revealed at least, it didn’t even look like she had anyone to answer to.
While Thomas is surrounded by different engines with different gifts, and his ‘master’ Sir Topham Hat to report to, The Little Engine does not seem to have access to any of this. When it comes to achieving a goal, what is intriguing about contrasting the two trains in these children’s stories, is that one of the engines is required to pull from something that the other one does not need to pull from.
What the Little Engine was required to access in her story that Thomas is not required to access (at least on the same level) is… faith. Imagine being or rather intentionally putting ourselves in a place where we must access faith. Some of us know that we have it. But not all of us are willing to put ourselves into situations that require utilization of it.
The catch phrase from the book, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can”, has become a motivational tool for many, for years to come.
We don’t like to think we can, we really would prefer to know we can. Knowing we can is often treated as a good thing. This knowing provides a comfort zone that is not afforded to The Little Engine in the example of her story.
And even though knowing is associated with good, with deeper reflection, in the simplest of characters, we can see that the thing here is not that we are doing what’s good. This is accomplished in a Thomas story most of the time. The real question we want to ask ourselves is… are we doing what’s right? There is a difference. One way that leads to the everyday, and the other leads to the exceptional. Which one are we?
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