White Frogs

I was just pleasantly surprised by a random movie recommended to me by Netflix.  I had a night to myself.  With Pugsley by my side, I turned up the heat, got comfortable and decided to see what this technology that I pay for each month would bring me.  I'm so out of touch with entertainment that I let the computer choose my entertainment.  What it brought me was a small movie called White Frogs.  For most of the movie, I had no idea what the title was about.  But then as all the pieces started coming together, one of the characters conveyed this story....

Grandma would tell a story of growing up in Viet Nam, that people would eat coconut frogs.  Yeah, coconut, and frogs.  She said her mother would take a coconut and make a small slit in it and insert a tadpole from the river.  The tad pole would live inside that coconut for a few weeks.  Then when the coconut was split open, you would find a blind frog with white skin.  The frog had the smoothest skin and the sweetest, softest coconut flavored meat.
Most of us live life, like one of those tad poles,  growing up in a strange world that never seemed right. Trying our best to fit in. To grow into a frog.  Our parents wanted us to be perfect.  They had an idea of what perfect was.  But in the end, we don't deserve to live in a coconut.  No one deserves that.
I am not a white frog.  I will not be a white frog, even if we are weird, different or strange. Because everyone is weird, different and strange.

I could relate so much with this story and these characters.  Growing up I felt like so much was expected of me.  Doctrine was instilled and I was marinated in beliefs that are not my own.  I could see glimpses of the outside world, but was protected from them and led to believe that it was all evil.  I watched how these beliefs effected each of my siblings differently.  I am happy to say that I now have a balanced knowledge and understanding of each of them as well as most of the world.  I am thirsty to learn even more each and every day.
This little tad pole will not reach the end of it's life with perfect white skin and tender meat for the masses to feast on.  No, it's going to continue to be a turbulent river with sunshine, rain, rocks and sand for me. Life will not devour me. Instead I will reach the end with a loving knowledge of hope for all that come after me.