![]() ![]() What can we take away from this? Every woman is an eight cow woman! Every woman that has been sent here to earthīrought with her innate beauty and worth as a precious daughter of God. It is to serve the purpose of always reminding Mahana that she is beautiful and that what is most important is that the beholder of the image in the mirror thinks that the reflection is beautiful. When Mr Harris arrives, he brings a beautiful hand mirror as requested by Mr Lingo. We witness her outer beauty at the end of the film as does her father and Mr Harris and can clearly see that she has arrived at the conclusion that she truly is ‘an eight cow woman.’ Of particular importance to note also is the symbolism of the gift he gets for her. It is not just that he saw his beloved as being worthy of eight cows but he recognised the important need for Mahana herself to feel like an ‘eight cow woman.’ He wanted her to know that her true value and worth was not connected to what others thought of her but what she thought of herself. Johnny Lingo’s wisdom is evident in this phrase. The thing that matters most is what she thinks of herself.” Many things can happen to make a woman beautiful. Johnny Lingo: “More than happy Mr Harris. I didn’t know you wanted to make Mahana happy.” I thought you were thinking only of how important you would look to your friends giving eight cows for a wife. The conversation between Mr Harris and Johnny at the conclusion of the short film is insightful: Nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful And remember – Your value doesn’t decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth!Ģ. Be generous with your compliments and sparing with your criticisms. Use your words to help make someone feel good about themselves. They are people that we love and the ones we assume love us too, so what they think and say and feel about us matters!įirst point – be careful with your words and especially with your actions. It makes sense that we let their words have so much power over us. This is heartbreaking – especially when it comes from the people who you love the most. You would need to be sold – or so he thinks, for you to be married. The travesty in this is not that everyone else thinks this of you, including your own father – but that you are probably starting to think that about yourself too! Your father thinks you are foolish and ugly and even goes too far so as to say that you have no worth. Your already tender feelings are only exacerbated as you overhear the villagers make fun of you and the impending proposal. Imagine being the butt of all the jokes as everyone gathers to witness the negotiations regarding your worth. “She’s as foolish as she is ugly… I’m ready to give him a cow just to have him take her off my hands” Mahana’s Father conveys this powerfully as he speaks about her in preparation for the negotiations. One thing I think we often tend to overlook is the power in our words and and actions and how they might affect the people around us or even our feelings about ourselves. Although I was very familiar with the story, I learned some very important lessons that Saturday night:-ġ. Our words and actions must uplift – not tear down ![]() What probably came as more of a surprise to me were the thoughts that I had following the viewing. ![]() I watch in awe as Johnny Lingo tenderly comforts his new wife during the festivities and am delighted and pleasantly surprised to see her again after they have settled into married life. Without hesitation, I click on it and watch as the charismatic Johnny Lingo surprises the whole village with his unmatched dowry of eight cows in exchange for the hand of his beloved Mahana in marriage. On the hunt for some Sabbath-appropriate entertainment, I stumble across the short film on lds.org. I have such fond memories of our family trips to the Temple, especially during the Christmas period when the Temple lights were in season during my childhood!įastforward twenty-or-so years later and I am in my room doing a bit of cleaning. I’m sure every kid that I grew up with and that had the great fortune of visiting the New Zealand Hamilton Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in their childhood will remember seeing the famous Johnny Lingo movie in the Visitor’s Centre while waiting for mum and dad to come out from the Temple. ![]()
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