On Jack Black, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Being Open Minded

At heart, I’m just a big kid and I’m the first to admit it. Jack Black is a big kid at heart too. I watched the new Gulliver’s Travels movie with Jack Black not too long ago. The movie being a modern adaptation, it was vastly different. There was one particular change I found to be noteworthy however, probably largely due to my recent time awareness crusade. I was a very minor detail from the book. The Gulliver in Jonathan Swift’s book had a habit of constantly looking at his watch; so much so that the Lilliputians believed it to be his god. As true as it was in Jonathan Swift’s time, we are ruled by the clock. The Jack Black Gulliver had an iPod instead. I suppose the iPod could represent the modern preoccupation with constantly keeping busy and need to make use of every minute.

Last night I went to see Kung Fu Panda 2, also starring Jack Black, with my lady friend and her family. I greatly enjoyed the movie, and think I’ll watch the first Kung Fu Panda movie again in the near future.

One particular quote from Kung Fu Panda 2 stuck with me; The soothsayer goat at one point tells the evil peacock that he is trying to fill a bottomless cup. Here’s a look at that expression, and  some other expressions that it brought to mind:

Trying to fill a bottomless cup.

In the movie Kung Fu Panda 2, the evil peacock has an unquenchable thirst for power. The goat asks him, after he takes over China, what then? The cup he is trying to fill has no bottom. He will never be satisfied.

Many bottomless cups exist. In psychology, this is the foundation of Maslow’s Theory of Human Motivation. We are driven to fulfill our needs in a specific order. With most of our needs met, most of us struggle with needs related to esteem. We attempt to fill this need the wrong way, with more stuff or more power. Sometimes we confuse the need and seek to fill it with food, retail therapy or empty sexual relationships. These pursuits are unsatisfying. They are bottomless cups.

I believe the way to truly fill this need is to discover what Po did in Kung Fu Panda the first. There is no secret ingredient. The Dragon Scroll is Blank. The answer is all inside you.  Esteem comes from within.

Empty your cup.

I was first introduced to this phrase by way of the movie Forbidden Kingdom (with Jackie Chan and Jet Li, 2008). The concept is that if you believe you know everything, if your cup is full, you cannot fill it anymore and it overflows. You reject new ideas. If you empty your cup, if you become open to new ideas, you are open-minded and thus able to learn. If someone tries to teach you something new, seek first to understand. Instead of determining why someone’s idea is wrong, try to understand why they could be right.

The cup is not half full or half empty; it is the wrong size.

Do you see the cup as half full or half empty? Maybe that old chestnut is a trick question. The answer depends largely on what your motivation is. Motivation is a concept rooted in the past or in the future.  Was it full or empty to begin with? Do you wish it were full or empty in the future? Perhaps the liquid is not the problem. Perhaps the cup is. The cup represents your way of thinking. Maybe you simply need a different cup. Be satisfied with what you have rather than focused on what was or what will be. Everything is subjective.

It’s similar ancient Chinese parable about Good Luck vs. Bad luck, which illustrates this subjectivity.

Parable of a Chinese farmer:

A Chinese farmer gets a horse, which soon runs away.
A neighbour says, "That's bad news." The farmer replies,
"Good news, bad news, who can say?"

The horse comes back and brings another horse with him. Good news, you might say.

The farmer gives the second horse to his
son, who rides it, then is thrown and badly breaks his leg.

"So sorry for your bad news," says the concerned neighbour.
"Good news, bad news, who can say?" the farmer replies.

In a week or so, the emperor's men come and take every
able-bodied young man to fight in a war. The farmer's son
is spared.

Good news, of course.

Now, to blow your mind, here are some bottomless, empty cups that become full.  Please enjoy this video of a weird machine that fills beer cups from the bottom to the top.