Lessons Learned from the Tiger King

Oh the Tiger King….what a phenomena it has been. Kudos to Netflix for realizing we’d somehow be quarantined to our homes & be forced to watch this show & not look away. They really saw the writing on the wall there!

My husband & I of course binged watched a few episodes every night & couldn’t seem to look away like everyone else. Something about the absolute craziness of the storyline. We would find ourselves sitting there with our mouths open & say “Is that real life?”, or texting family members asking if they had just seen the latest episode & the chaos that was unfolding…

But then I was thinking - SURELY there are some lessons to be learned from this show. There’s the obvious of not doing illegal drugs or using offensive language or conspiring in murder for hire plots - but surely there’s more there that we can learn from, right?

Here’s what I’ve come up with:

Things aren’t always what they seem

As each episode unfolded it seemed like something new & crazy was introduced. Things I thought could never happen or didn’t fit reality would just magically appear. Which is mostly why we were left sitting with our mouths open & blank expressions spread across our faces.

But one thing I think we can learn from Joe Exotic is that things aren’t always what they seem. I’m sure from the outside looking in, the park guests were none-the-wiser on some of the antics that were going on inside; some of the abuse or corrupt behavior going on behind those gates. And I’m sure Joe Exotic was blind to the fact that his employees & new investors had different motives than he did when it came to the park’s “success”.

Isn’t that true in our own lives as well? ESPECIALLY right now? Things aren’t always what they seem? Sure, things seem bleak right now. This quarantine feels like it will never end. That there is no light at the end of the tunnel. But things aren’t always what they seem. By retraining the way we think & how we react & choosing positivity over fear, things are DEFINITELY not what they seem! There IS light at the end of the tunnel. We CAN make it through hard things. We may have seen ourselves as weak or incapable before this pandemic, but now look at us - we are defying the odds & making the best out of a pretty terrible situation.

We are stronger than we seem, smarter than we think, & braver than we believe, friends.

Words can kill.

This is literally why Joe Exotic is in jail. Because of WORDS. There of course has to have been some proof of his murder-for-hire plot against the infamous Carol Baskin, but most of what put him behind bars, I think, had to do with his words. He said A LOT of incriminating things both on camera & I’m sure, off camera. He had an internet show devoted to verbally slamming her for goodness sake!

The words we choose to come out of our mouths have consequences, friends. This goes all the way back to the golden rule “Treat others as you want to be treated”. I would argue this truth now more than ever! So why not lift others up with what we say? Why not choose to be kind instead of offering a criticism? Not a lot of us are out driving around these days, but what if we chose to FORGIVE the car that cuts us off instead of giving them lip service?

Rising TOGETHER is something we preach in the FASTer Way. The words we choose to say are a big part of that. Let’s take a lesson out of Joe’s book on what NOT to do…

More isn’t always better.

Oh gosh - the cars, the clothes, the guns, the CATS. Joe was never satisfied. He always wanted the next big thing & I think his greed got the best of him. Not only did this lead to financial issues, but it ultimately led to losing the park - everything he’d worked for. His intentions were most certainly meant for good in the beginning but his lust for more forced him to lose sight of what was really important to him.

Through this pandemic we’ve been forced to take a more simplistic approach to life. At first, we mourned for our “old” lives - we missed the rush of always being on the go, running to the next thing, filling our schedules. Trust me, I speak from experience. Our normal M-O was that same thirst for more.

But perhaps now we are enjoying the simple more than we’d care to admit? Maybe the slower pace of enjoying time with our families & our kids is exactly what we needed. Maybe not spending money on everything we see has been a nice change of pace - a way we can pour back into others.

Thanks, Tiger King, for putting things in perspective for us.