"He's a Boy. He Doesn't Need to Be Creative."

Leave it to philosopher, Hank Hill, to put it in just the right way. I thought I had seen just about every King of the Hill episode. But an episode came on yesterday that I don't think I had seen.

In this particular episode, Hank decides to send Bobby to a class on learning how to be a clown. He was having a difficult time dealing with Bobby and his imagination. Bobby had been acting up everywhere, at school, at church, at home, trying to be the funny guy. Peggy noted that Bobby needed a better outlet to be creative and use his imagination, at which point Hank shot back: "He's a boy. He doesn't need to be creative."

Mike Judge and the other creators of King of the Hill do a great job with the show, particularly in somewhat over-exaggerating different belief systems and thought patterns of people living in small town Texas (and all across the southern U.S. for that matter). Whether it's showing that the fictional town of Arlen puts way too much stock and importance in their football team or showing how children are expecting to grow up in that town, they really hit at some important facets and values of small town life.

The idea, of course, in this episode is that Hank believes that Bobby should grow up like him: enjoying sports, working on trucks, and not being creative or artistic, or using his imagination (which perfectly describes Bobby). It's too bad that Hank, and so many people, tries to pigeon-hole his child into his own image . . . rather than allowing him to mature and flourish into his own person.

We do that with children. I, for one, have seen plenty of it. Maybe not always shaping children into parents' exact images, but definitely plenty of shaping into who parents think their children should be. (It must be noted, though, that having thoughts and wishes for children is not always a bad thing. It becomes bad when we allow that to shape who they are becoming.)
But we also do that with adults . . . and with everyone, really. At the least, in our heads, we try to make others be who we think they should be. At worst, we allow that to influence how we treat other people.

We are at our best when we try to be who we truly are . . . not who we think others think we should be.