Whatever you do, don’t look down…

There’s a recurrent theme in our culture, the stories that we tell to ourselves, warning us about the dangers of looking back and hesitating on our journey and the damage that can do.

The ancient Greeks told the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, where his inability to resist a backwards glance meant that he lost his true love to the depths of hell forever. In the Bible, Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt as she escaped the burning city of Sodom, because she looked back when the angels explicitly told her not to.

These are stark stories with severe consequences. They tell us that when we’re facing tough challenges we need to keep going without doubt, regret or hesitation, with the risk of everything coming unstuck if we do.

It’s fascinating how deep-rooted this theme is, how we tell versions of this this cautionary tale again and again down the generations.

But for me, my favourite retelling has always been the example of Wile E Coyote in the Merrie Melodies Roadrunner stories. In these the consequences of the Coyote’s moment of doubt actually change the laws of science (so much so that the study of cartoon physics has become a thing of its own)

It starts like this. The bright and resourceful Coyote devotes his existence to chasing the Roadrunner across the deserts of Southwest America, but despite a series of complicated schemes and devices, the Roadrunner is always one step ahead.

The Roadrunner has this amazing ability to run off the winding roads of the desert peaks, with sheer confidence able to beat the law of gravity hands down – and run straight on to the road the other side.

The Coyote follows on – dashing through the sky in hot pursuit. But midway through, trapped by his own intelligence maybe, the moment of doubt kicks in. He thinks to himself “surely this can’t be happening” and as that thought sinks in, it turns to reality.

Gravity kicks back in, and the coyote is condemned to it’s recurring fate, a crushing and humiliating fall down to the desert floor below.

Why I love this so much is not just the fact that this is so beautifully illustrated, but the sheer relentless inevitability of the Coyote’s fate – despite everything experience might teach – serves to heavily underline what happens when we let even a moment of doubt creep in.

So why do we keep retelling this story to ourselves, so many times over the years? And why do we tell it quite so strongly.

I’m guessing it must be because it tells us a fundamental truth of human existence. When times are tough we need to maintain the courage of our convictions, to keep ploughing on through, know that we can magically get through it to the other side if we can keep going…

….and provided we don’t let doubt creep in and we don’t look down….

for Clara, whenever I might find her