“Ask the Horse”
There is this moment in Bad Boys for Life where Captain Howard keeps telling Mike to “ask the horse.”
On one level, it plays for laughs. The Captain is crazy. He’s older. Softened around the edges. Maybe even a little unhinged. Mike is the strong one. Tough. Proud. He doesn’t believe in slowing down. He believes you gotta always be the loudest person in the room and the hardest man to knock down. But what’s funny about Capt. Howard saying that line is that it also holds a truth that we just refuse to admit.
See the Capt. was broken by death. Mike wasn’t. That’s the true conflict between them. One man realized life was temporary. The other thought he was indestructible. I think that’s where we are as a society.No one wants to slow down and be vulnerable.
Everyone is trying to be massive and powerful.
Everybody wants a résumé to envy.
Everybody wants their face everywhere.
Everybody wants to seem like they’re above it all; unaffected. Emotionless. Rich. Strong. Smart. Tougher. Better. MORE than everyone else. Nobody is happy though. Most of us are tired of walking around every single day as a version of ourselves we created to either protect ourselves, be accepted, or validated. Social media makes looking good every day our full-time job. We’ve made the mistake that stopping long enough to be heard is viewed as weakness. We chase distraction over substance. Seek fame over friends. Forget compassion because we’re too busy numbing our emptiness. We’re all screaming because on the inside, we’re terrified of quiet. That’s why that scene hit me.
“Ask the horse” could really mean:take the time to listen.
Listen to your life whispering at you.
Listen to your failures screaming at you.
Listen to your pain.
Listen to the people in your life who are trying to speak life to you before your ego alienates you.
Listen up before your ambition eats you alive.
Some of us try so hard to prove how tough we are on the outside that we crack ourselves wide open on the inside. We praise the idea of buffering our images but crave healing.
You can have status and feel numb.
You can have beauty but feel invisible.
You can have followers and feel utterly disconnected from those around you.
Strength without wisdom is dangerous. Look around. This is what it creates. People compensate their feelings of weakness with cruelty.
We mask our loneliness with power.
We cover our fears with rage.
We try to drown our pain with noise.
Strength is not the opposite of weakness. True strength is understanding that you don’t have to kill everyone you step in the room with to be respected. Wisdom can sound like crazy if your ego is listening. Mike laughed at Marcus because he didn’t want to hear what Marcus was saying. Until…. life broke enough of Mike’s ego down that he actually started to understand what asking the horse was all about.
Maybe the world doesn’t need more people pretending to be untouchable. Maybe it needs more people willing to become vulnerable. Maybe it’s time we all asked the horse.
Peace:
J Powell
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