Rescuing Gus Gus
Surviving abuse and using your privilege to help others, according to Cinderella.
Most of us in this day and age are familiar with the story of Cinderella but let’s recap before we get to the topic at hand. Cinderella loses her mother in childbirth, her early years are spent happily with her father in their very nice estate. Her father decides to remarry and then passes away, leaving her with her stepmother and step sisters. Her step mother is abusive, forcing Cinderella to live as a lone servant, doing all of the cooking and housekeeping and encouraging her own daughters to participate in the abuse.
It would have been very easy for Cinderella to become resentful and mean in the face of the abuse she suffers but she doesn’t. She is lucky because she was born privileged, in her formative years she was well fed so she doesn’t suffer the long lasting health detriments of being a malnourished child. She knows how to love and be kind because she (presumably) learned it from her father. She lives in a house that has the belongings of her mother tucked in away in the attic. It is sad to say that being loved and having physical reminders of those who loved us is a privilege but it is in the sense that many children and victims of abuse don’t have these things.
The work that Cinderella has to do keeps her incredibly busy, even so she manages to make friends with many of the animals around the house. It’s obvious that she has with them a relationship of mutual trust, love and respect. It may not be ideal to have your only friends be birds, mice, a dog and a horse. That does not make the relationships less important though. Given that her friends show far more humanity and care than the people she lives with, it’s no wonder that she values each and every one of them.
Now lets look at this rescue clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm8K6SKxfnA
Jack and another small mouse rush into Cinderella’s room telling her that they have a new visitor. She opens a small drawer to reveal sewing supplies and a stash of small clothes already for a newcomer. Real mice don’t need clothes but within the context of the movie it’s communicated to us that Cinderella has taken time out of her busy routine to prepare these things. When Jack informs her that the visitor is in the trap she rushes to his aid.
Cinderella opens the trap to find this little plump mouse that is absolutely petrified of her. Immediately she recognizes that she is a stranger and a perceived threat to him. Not offended or upset in the least she recognizes that Jack is in a much better position to set Gus at ease. Jack reassures and guides Gus out to see her so she can set him up for his new life as part of the house community of mice.
To end the interaction, she reminds them of the largest immediate threat to the mice that she knows of, the cat. And rushes off to do her own work, leaving Jack to teach Gus Gus how to navigate the house because as another mouse, he’s in the best position to do that.
Cinderella uses her power to do what the mice can’t do for themselves, open the trap. She also recognizes what she can’t do but knows who can and introduces them. Her role complete she trusts them to handle their lives from there and leaves to go about her own day.
I know not everyone may have gotten that lesson from the movie as a kid but that’s what I got out of it and what I’ve applied as a format for helping those around me, no matter their species.