Hard work

We miss a lot of that out.

I was watching Chuggington with Beth the other day. It was the one with the ice cream maestro "Frostini" and his quest for an innovative flavour for the banquet. Anyway - being a train, he couldn't mix the ice cream by hand. He had a machine to do that.

He had a machine to do some of the hard work. It responded to his instructions, but ultimately, the machine took the strain.

So we watch films or tv - and in the interests of plot movement, time saving or generally staving off boredom for those watching in on the lives of the people involved - we don't see the full story. We miss some of the hard work out.

My earliest memory of this comes from Blue Peter: "here's one I prepared earlier". Or perhaps "here's one we took time to make in a more intentional manner".

Then it's the A-Team and the inevitable montage (with purposeful music) where some form of battering ram/armoured car/flying fortress/tank was made from a few sheets of steel, the sweat from Murdoch's head and the power of Mr T's stare. Willing suspension of disbelief aside, we were whisked through the hard work in a few seconds and amazed by their Maker ability.

I get it. I do. I understand why it's like that. It's entertainment, right?

Just ask anyone trying to start/grow/maintain a small business in these days: we don't build an armoured car in a few hours, no matter how strong your glare is. We don't learn to play the violin in a few time-elapsed minutes. We can't grieve and find some semblance of *normality* in a few seconds, no matter how soothing the soundtrack.

I think about the weeWeir growing up and learning to do pretty much everything for the first time. She'll need to work hard at many things. I hope to encourage her not to skip the hard work, sure find ways to improve how she works, but many things in life are about the journey more than the destination. About learning how to as much as arriving.

Or should we just find the shortest route possible and do things as easily and cheaply as we can?

Maybe I'm reading this wrong and the storytellers are trying to let us see the hard work. Maybe it's my perception that's wired the wrong way!

What's your take?