LESSONS FROM RUDY

I haven’t watched the movie, “Rudy” in a long time. 


I was looking through my dvd’s today, and thought, “My wife is at a bowling tournament with our grandson” (and) “I have nothing but time. I think I’ll watch ‘Rudy.’”


(I don’t know why they have to mess up quality movies with a couple random ‘GD’s. I guess it’s so they can give it a PG-13 rating. However, I figure I can always mute the sound when those words are about to be spoken. After all, by now I know exactly where they are in the movie).


There’s a scene at the beginning of the movie in which Rudy, and his best friend, Pete, are conversing on their lunch break at the steel production factory where they work. 


Suddenly, Pete lays a cupcake on the table, (which he has procured from a nearby vending machine), takes out a birthday candle from his pocket, lights it, and signals for Rudy to blow it out. Having done this, Pete hands a brown paper bag to Rudy, and tells him to open it. Now, our young hero reaches in the bag, and pulls out a used jacket which bears a Notre Dame monogram.


Rudy has a vision of enrolling at this prestigious university one day. The eighteen year old beams with gratitude, and says,


“Pete, you are the only one who ever believed in me.”


To which Pete responds,


“Well, my father always says, ‘Having dreams is the only thing which makes life tolerable.’”


I know I have found this adage to be true. Every day I breathe an almost silent prayer,


“Lord, please don’t let me miss whatever still remains of my destiny.”



Pt. 2


And then there is another scene in the movie in which Rudy has just arrived at Notre Dame University, and he is speaking to a priest.

“My whoIe Iife peopIe have been teIIing

me what I couId do, and couIdn't do.

I've aIways Iistened to them,

and beIieved in what they said.

…I don't want to do that anymore.”

As a counselor, I deal with people, lots of people, who have been almost irretrievably impacted by their parents, or siblings, or extended family or authority figures, some in a very positive way, but most in a very negative way.

In many cases, my clients have not only been told what they could, and couldn’t do, but what they are, or what they are not.

In scripture Jesus said, “My words are spirit and they are life.” Well, words can also be spirit and death. There has been an abundance of death spoken over an abundance of people over an abundance of time.

I admire people like Rudy who have discovered a way to break out of the cycles with which others have imprisoned them, and sentenced them, as it were, to a life of flawed mindsets and dysfunctional behavior. For these are the people who find the wherewithal to do marvelous things, and to make an inestimable difference in the lives which God intends to set in their pathway.

By William McDonald, PhD. Copyright pending

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