Teachings from Our Lady of the Workshop

Everyone has the natural inborn drive to want to express who they really are to everyone around them and to be accepted and loved because of it. Unfortunately, many factors cause people to turn away from this drive. It doesn’t matter if those factors are social, personal, or just for survival, they all become suppressed and the person isn’t who they really are.

When you are young and growing up, those pressures consume your life. You struggle between being who you really are and being what those pressures are trying to make you be. It’s times like this that we look to a role model. One who has gone through this trying time and has seemed to figure it out. Where this role model comes from is not important. Rather, it’s what they teach us that holds true value.

One such role model is our dear Rescue Ranger, Gadget. There has never been a character so real to the human condition. She had her strengths and she had her weaknesses. She had confidence in herself and she had her doubts. Yet always in the end she remained true to herself. She never sacrificed her personality for the sake of fitting in. She was loved and accepted for who she was. Everything about Gadget proved that is it possible to be yourself. It’s a given that there’s no way you’d be perfect. Gadget proved this when the other Rangers made small comments on the quality of her cooking--or lack thereof (Good Times Bat Times), when she had so many good ideas she couldn’t decide on which one to put into action (Gadget goes Hawaiian), or just when her inventions have a small glitch and fail nearly injuring someone in the process. But these are small matters because the positive aspects of someone’s personality greatly outweigh the negative aspects. Once again Gadget proves this. How many times are one of her ideas needed to get the Rangers out of a jam? How many times is she looked upon as the voice of reason? How many times does her heart open the largest for those in need? The list goes on and on.

Even though she is a cartoon character, she is alive. Her teachings manifest themselves in the hearts of all those who have looked upon her as a role model sometime in their life. She teaches us to open our hearts to others no matter who they are, to care for those in need. She teaches us to be ourselves, to learn from our mistakes, to be glad of who we are, to love and appreciate those around us, and that we will be loved and appreciated in return. Most of all, she teaches us to be human… to be REAL. And by being real, we are truly happy.

On behalf of myself and of all those who have looked you to in their time of confusion, need, or just for a reminder of how life should really be, I salute and thank you Gadget.


Nicole Morley, RRHQ Co-webmistress