Urkel

I think Steve Urkel is awesome.

 

I'm currently in season 1 of 9 of Family Matters. Urkel (played by Jaleel White) hasn't made it into the credits yet, but he still makes the show what it is. Why? and how?

1) No matter how badly people treat him - and believe me, he's treated badly - he never gets angry. In one episode, some big guys stuff him in the couch - literally.  At the end of the episode, Carl sits on top of him. All you hear is Steve humming. Carl pulls off a couch cushion, Steve sits up and says, "Party of the year, Carl. Party of the year."  He then offers Carl a cheese puff.

2) Steve is possibly the clumsiest guy I have ever seen on television. He's geeky. He wears his pants pulled up to his armpits. Yet, he's not afraid to be who he is.  He is super confident, and doesn't get mad at himself for his shortcomings.

3) He's persistent. He knows what he wants (her name is Laura Lee Winslow) and won't give up.  If she turns him down, he says, "I'll come back at a better time." and that's exactly what he does.

The persistence (eventually) pays off.  Though I haven't gotten there yet, I know that Steve gets his girl; at the end of season 9, Steve and Laura are engaged.

Sorry if I spoiled it for anyone who's watching it now, by the way.... 

Still, I'm having a lot of fun watching the show. When I see Laura turn Steve down time after time after time, I smile to myself, knowing that, eventually, she's going to cave and fall for his charms.  And I'm curious to see how it all comes about. I've seen enough of the show to know that both Laura and Steve date other people. But in the end, something draws them to each other.

 

I'll bet that, if Laura knew in season one that she'd eventually be with Steve, she would have run out of the house kicking and screaming.  Why? Because she thought he was a nerd. That he would ruin her life. That he would ... [fill in your own].

I'm convinced that the problem was that Laura could only see a) what she wanted to see and b) what was right in front of her at the time.  And as she grew older (and wiser!) she began to see that there was more to Steve than the clumsiness, the ridiculous glasses, the high-pitched voice and the high-hitched pants. And that's what she fell in love with.

 

Warning: amateur philosophical reasoning is about to happen. The writer is not responsible for how this affects the reader. Proceed with caution

In a sense, the Father is in our position. We're down here, saying, "NO!" to so many things. And I'll bet you He's just sitting back in his rocker - because all cool people have one, and He's the coolest* - chuckling to Himself and saying, "Just you wait and see... you'll be more than okay with this some day."

This is why, as much as I would like to know what life will be like a few years down the road, I'm going to have to get there the old-fashioned way; through time.  But I've lived long enough to know that what I never thought would happen and what I've said "NO WAY JOSE!" to has sometimes turned out to be part of The Plan.  

And, even more surprisingly, I've been more than okay with that. After all, I am in China, aren't I?  Never saw that one coming.

Here's the question: how much crow will I have eaten when I reach eternity?

*Nope. I don't own a rocker ... *le sigh.*