I had never seen the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory until a few months ago. If you haven't seen it, it's quite trippy and weird and has a positive message. But there's one part of the movie that I think people miss.
Near the beginning of the movie, 5 lucky kids find a "golden ticket" in a chocolate bar wrapper. These five "winners" are rewarded with a behind-the-scenes tour of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory and a lifetime supply of chocolate.
So, as the story goes, there are four problematic kids and one nice young man named Charlie that found the golden tickets. I'll leave the rest of the plot to you, but here's what I find interesting. It seemed there were 5 winners, but there weren't.
The golden ticket wasn't the end. It was the beginning. The kids that got them didn't win the race. They were simply given an opportunity to run.
If you were fortunate enough to be born in the United States of America or another 1st world country, you've been given a golden ticket... like it or not. You don't have to cash it in. You can sit on it and wait for your fortune to come. You can complain because the other racers are passing you. You can complain and moan because the race is hard.
Or...
You can come to the realization that you were given a golden ticket. You live in a place that will allow you to follow your dreams, where food and water flow freely, and where we can worship any way we want.
So, if you're reading this, take this blog post as your golden ticket. Take it. Feel it. Let it sink in. You HAVE a golden ticket in your hand right now. Not everyone in the world has gotten one, but you have. And it wasn't by accident.
Now I'm not much for guilt trips, but I am a realist. So I would be remiss to leave out the other side to this story.
Today someone is going to be born without a golden ticket. A baby will be born in a place where his or her mother isn't nourished enough to feed them. Where there isn't clean water within a 5-mile radius. Where their life will be threatened on a regular basis before they ever see their teenage years. Where they won't have access to even basic education.
It's not about guilt. It's about realizing that you owe the world something when you're given a golden ticket. When you're dealt pocket aces, you play the damn hand. Too many people are folding because they are afraid to play.
Play. The. Hand.
I can't wait to see what you'll do when you decide to get in the game!