Mac Finds Love #lovelink #gaming #nightcourt

It's Mac's turn to play the dating game...Mac Robinson that is, from Night Court! The series where I pretend I'm a character from the 1980s show, Night Court, and make them try the 'dating app', Lovelink. Will Mac succeed in finding love? Will it be everything he's been dreaming of? A lesson is learned when Mac finds love in an unexpected place.

Every little thing is gonna be all right: Night Court Of Life Lessons Chapter 15

 

It's Gonna Be Okay

The message of today is to meditate on the special unique power of friendship, real, lasting, pure, and unconditional.  The type of friend that will love you with honesty and authenticity, enjoying the times of mirth and good fortunate, weeping over the hard times, and will bluntly tell you when you've gone off the rails into the danger zone.  The characters' and their arcs throughout the run of Night Court OG reflected that.   From the dawn of the first episode through the final episode, they grew through the years as they got to know each other and experienced the peaks and the pitfalls of life.  They were honest enough to help steer someone back on course if they had gone astray or were acting in anyway out of normalcy or with disregard.  In the times when one fell into despair, they were also there to help rebuild and bring them back.  This often expressed itself in many a form based not just on the storyline but also the character themselves.

As I scan through Night Court's IMDB page, I am awash with many examples showing how the characters' demonstrated true friendship and were there for one another when needed.  However, in the instance of time (and yes I can go all day chatting on NC because it's the best ever), I will only showcase a couple.  First, in season two, episode nineteen, "Married Alive", (a personal favorite), Dan meets, falls in love with, and gets engaged to an 'ugly duckling' rich heiriss.  While his friends' doubt his authenticity when it comes to the upcoming nuptials thinking its merely for financial gain, Dan actually has fallen for this woman because he finds in her someone who he can let down his guard and be real with, proving that there is more nuance to Dan than he allows to be seen.  (That's why I love him so much!)  

Dan Fielding: [snaps his fingers] Poof! I mean just like your magic, Harry. She makes my problems disappear, my anxieties subside. I mean God's in his heaven, all is right with the world, there's nowhere to go but up, look for the silver lining, don't give up the ship! And I'll be damned if that's not what each and every one of us is looking for, and I just happened to find mine, so the best of luck to the rest of you. You know that crazy stuff that we all carry around inside of us? That stuff that eats little holes in your brain and churns at your insides? That stuff that you know you cannot possibly tell another living human being? I can tell her. And she listens, and she understands. She says "It's all right. [long pause]It's all right." And it IS.

In the end, it is his fiance' who backs out of the marriage due to her terror when her father threatens to cut her off, leaving Dan heartbroken.   Outwardly, Dan puts on a brave face, but finding himself alone with the pain, he turns to the one friend present, Harry, calling out to him with, "Harry!" who comforts him in return with "It'll be all right, Dan", leaving together with their arms around each others'  shoulders.

The favor is returned to Harry by Dan in season three, episodes nine and ten, "Wheels Of Justice", Harry becomes downtrodden when he sees himself as a failure to a destitute mother and her son and decides to walk away from his bench.  Defiantly, he decides to live his life as a hustler playing pool in a bar and it's only Dan brave enough to stand up against him and with full authenticity he shames and loves his friend back to where he belongs. 

You Twerp

The point of all of this is to show how more often than not it's our friends that we need more than anyone else in times of despair.  Our friends to come around us and build us up with that simple "It'll be all right".  

About a week ago, I lost a good friend from high school from Covid19.  Growing up, I went to a very small and rural school district wherein most of my class knew each other from preschool onwards through high school.  So, the loss of my friend is akin to losing a beloved family member because my classmates and I are a family, even if time and distance has come between.  That weekend I found myself in a place of feeling stymied, unable to really focus, feeling numb and in shock with the absence of her presence in my life.  Sunday morning I went out to my garden to do some winter cleaning and picking of the last fruits of my labor.  The sky was blue and the sun was bright, not too cold yet not too warm.  I stood up from my chores and felt the warmth of the sunlight beaming down upon me and was overcome with this feeling of warmth.  I felt my friend's spirit hug me from within and felt her expressing comfort as she would with: 

"It's gonna be okay, I love you, and thank you."

I will not say that I am completely over my grief, but that moment of comfort where I felt her with me has strengthened my resolve and ability to move forward.  A friend may not pass onward to whatever comes next to be that source of comfort and reprieve, in fact, my sole desire in life is to be present for those dear to me before fading away and to never fail to express verbally and nonverbally how much I love, for its in that that is truly known that:

 "Every little thing is gonna be all right."

Rise up this mornin',
Smiled with the risin' sun,
Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep
Singin' sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,
Sayin', "This is my message to you-ou-ou:"
Singin': "Don't worry about a thing, worry about a thing, oh!
Every little thing gonna be all right. Don't worry!"
Singin': "Don't worry about a thing" - I won't worry!
"'Cause every little thing gonna be all right."

Every Little Thing Is Gonna Be All Right

Mistakes Life's Greatest Teachers: Night Court Of Life Lessons Chapter Fourteen

 

Mistakes Life's Greatest Teachers

If your friends are meant to be there for you no matter what, through thick and thin, then the myriad of faces that tread across the courtroom floor of the original Night Court are just that, friends to the end throughout the good and the bad.  The choices of each character brought about amusing storylines but also went deeper than that to reveal the true power of unconditional and nonjugmental acceptance of another and the support that involves in developing one's personal confidence and self worth.  Of this, I can attest to as I continue forward in my soul's evolution recognizing the value of healthy relation and that that isn't.  

These characters had their fair share of honest and not so fair choices that led to mistakes, however, this helped further the growth of their development into a truly better soul.  These include Bull's rapid decision to quit his job as bailiff to take up work as a professional wrestler, a myriad of Dan's quick get ahead decisions or one night stands, Harry's reaction to being called a "Pig" which led him to walk away from the bench, and Christina or Billie's naive decision to stand up for what they believed was right for the clients even if it flew in the face of the law.  In each decision made, they were led down the winding pathway until the destruction, leading them to face themselves and own their mistakes.  With each step, their friends and colleagues followed them throughout, finding themselves both amused by the antics that were caused by the choices made while also expressing concern towards their loved one.  In the end, it was these loved ones that gently (or sometimes not so) helped their friend dust themselves, return to their feet, and continue forward, albeit a bit abashed but not worse for the wear, in fact, better because of the circumstances. 

In a very real sense, the mistakes made were the greatest of teachers that taught the lessons needed to shape the soul into its truest and highest self.  Such is the same with us, as we stumble through this life, sometimes faltering with our choices and finding a door slamming in our faces, we need not bemoan ourselves for our mistakes or hearing that resounding "No" echoing within our soul weakening our self worth, but rather see these deadends as not our demise but an opportunity to turn, reflecting within, and begin again.  

Stephanie Powers, the host of the podcast, "Lightworkers Lounge" famously shares that 'failures are not endings, but opportunities for new beginnings' (paraphrase). 

You take me to another space in time
You take me to a higher place
So I'm, I'm about to get out of the race
I don't mind
You ought to know that everything's nothing if I don't have you

A Higher Place

Find out more about Stephanie Powers & L ightworkers Lounger at: Lightworkers Lounge

What Friends Are For: Night Court Of Life Lessons Chapter Thirteen

 

Good friends stick by your side through life's journey, calling you out when you go astray, lifting you up in times of heartache, and cheering you on when the glorious finished line is achieved with true heartfelt satisfaction

Oh, the power of friendship!  What can be said about the notion of good, solid friendship?  How can it be defined and explained in mere words what is felt within?

Friendship, merely platonic, is somehow seen as less important than other connections, be they romantic or familial, yet the import of a good friend is so necessary for one's soul's evolution.  A good friend straightens your tie or your skirt before you head into a big meeting, cheers you on when you glance back for encouragement, loves you no matter what may come, and sees value in you even when your exterior choices seems so undesirable.

Looking at the Dan Fielding character of it all, his sex-crazed, seemingly narcissistic ploys for power, one wonders why his colleagues maintained any sort of connection outside of the necessary work relationship, but thus they did.  Because underneath it all, as we have seen and continue to see revealed throughout the series, Dan Fielding bore a heart of good and fierce loyalty to do what's right, even if it meant sacrificing his own desires at times.  Thus, there was always a limit to his perceived slimy drives and usually were reached when his actions would cause harm to another.  His friends saw that happen time after time and thus were patient during each new undertaking because they knew the power of good would win the day overall.

Dan was not the only character that saw the power of good friendship given to him.  Each character felt the longlasting effect of being apart of Judge Stone's courtroom, including Stone himself.  (Just as each actor (and most likely the crew) felt the longlasting effect of being cast in Night Court, including Anderson himself.) Whether it be, patiently waiting for Dan to grasp the moral choice in his graspings, whether it be Christine's giving birth in an elevator, endlessly attempting to educate Bull on what a sex change was yet to no avail, or endearing the myriad of Harry's magic tricks again and again, true friendship stayed and saw through the person's exterior, time and time again. 

Thus, they grew to one another as a whole, recognizing that each is full of nuance, not merely good or bad, and each capable of ever evolving into something better.  From this, we can conjecture that good friends stick by your side through life's journey, calling you out when you go astray, lifting you up in times of heartache, and cheering you on when the glorious finished line is achieved with true heartfelt satisfaction.

That's What Friends Are For

We're your friends

We're your friends

We're your friends to the bitter end

When you're alone

Who comes around

To pluck you up

When you are down

And when you're outside, looking in

Who's there to open the door?

That's what friends are for!

For more of chapters about the power of friendship within Night Court, check out Wisdom From Night Court , Life Is Short; Hug A Friend, and Family Is Thicker Than Blood

Dreams Don't Just Happen: Night Court Of Life Lessons Chapter Eight

Hard Work Pays Off, Just Ask Dan

Say what you want about him, love him or hate him or even both, Dan Fielding is a hard worker, diligently doing what he has to elevate his position.  Along the way, it may appear as if his soul has been lost but it's only momentarily mired in the mud of the endless pursuit, for when it is necessary, once again it emerges prevailing doing what's right.

As we learn throughout the seasons, Dan is a self-made man, building himself by his own blood, sweat, and tears having literally come up from being dirt poor.  That's right, his father was a dirt farmer, who never could really amount to anything or get anything growing on his property.  However, unsuccessful his parents were at running a farm, they were successful at child-rearing because they gave all they had to help start Dan out, from there every gain he has received has been with every effort of his own.  Yet, with such focus he found great success and gain.

It's an old trope, "hard work pays off" especially in western cultures, that of hard work is rewarded and laziness is considered a weakness leading to failure.  "You never fail if you just try", another quips.  Furthermore, dreams don't come true merely by imagining, but those imaginings are what propel us ever forward to take each step necessary to reach our ambitions.  At times, the road seems fraught with peril and we are want to throw in the towel, feeling as if no end is in sight to reach our desired destinations.

Currently, I find myself in that frame of mind, having sat here at this computer, working steadily on various content projects feeling as if I can never quite move forward far enough, yet at the same time that my intentions seem not so far off simultanously it feels as if they keep moving just a little bit farther the closer I get to it.  Maddeningly at times, truly.  

Yet, as I write this, hilariously I am finding strength by looking at the character of Dan Fielding, who came up from dirt and pulled himself by his own bootstraps to pursue his career ambitions.  So, too, I could look at John Larroquette, the man who has inspired my acting ambitions, has worked steadily for over forty years, pursuing his dreams as an actor, one job after the next, successfully killing it along the way (sometimes not, remember the talk show debacle).  

So, my friend, when you find yourself downtrodden, discouraged, turn on Night Court season one and episode one, follow Dan Fieldings  journey throughout the years and see how a lot of striving and scheming was truly driven by an unwavering belief in reaching his desired destination.

Every step I'm taking

Every move I make feels

Lost with no direction

My faith is shaking

But I, I gotta keep trying

Gotta keep my head held high

There's always gonna be another mountain

I'm always gonna wanna make it move

Always gonna be an uphill battle

Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose

Ain't about how fast I get there

Ain't about what's waiting on the other side

It's the climb

The Climb