Talk about inspirational! Last weekend I caught the film, The King’s Speech, which will most certainly garner a host of awards. (Colin Firth, who plays the reluctant King George VI who inherits the throne after his brother, Edward VIII, abdicates, has already carried home a Golden Globe Award.)
The movie’s title is a play on words. The king’s speech is both the stammer that plagues the Duke of York as well as the eloquent war-time message that he delivers once he is crowned. While I could wax eloquent about the acting, cinematography, costume design and script, the personal growth element of the story is how someone, who feels so undeserving and indeed handicapped with a debilitating stutter, manages nonetheless to find his voice and rise to the challenge of leading a country, overcoming his disability and fears in the process.
I know that in areas where I feel unworthy, I may shy away from taking on challenges just as the Duke dreaded the inevitable mantle of leadership falling to him along with the task of inspiring a nation battered by war. But through determination, hard work, courage and dignity, he achieved his goal. Of course, he didn’t accomplish the turnaround alone. He was supported by a loving wife (played by Helen Bonham Carter) and an eccentric speech therapist (Geoffrey Rush), with whom he forges a life-long bond of friendship.
Just like the Duke of York who became King George VI, we too can go beyond our limited self-image and realize our potential. We too can be crowned with success by facing our fears and working hard towards our goals—with a little help from our friends, of course.
