The Honourable Wally Norman

In an attempt to get into the election spirit, I decided to check out Wally Norman.

The Honourable Wally Norman to be precise, recently released on video and DVD. It tells the story of Wally, who lives in a small country town and his biggest claim to fame is his race-winning goat. He has a regular family and a regular Holden ute. He’s a nice guy and not one for being the centre of attention.
Things start to go bad when Wally, and everyone else at the local (nut)meat works lose their jobs. Some dodgy stuff has gone on behind the scenes but there’s not much any of them can do about it.
Wally and his mates can only stand outside the gates with their placards and shout their protest. Things take a bit of a turn when Wally accidentally gets nominated to stand for the national election against the guy who helped to close the meatworks. He doesn’t know what he’s in for but he sees that it might be the only way he can help his mates.
Wally seems a bit like Moses when he was called to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. He makes a lot of excuses and takes a lot of convincing that he’s the man for the job.
He does decide to stand for election, but he’s not sure what he is doing will have any effect. By rising to the challenge he demonstrates something important about the way things can be changed. Rather than just complaining or feeling frustrated about the bad situation he’s in, Wally Norman steps up!
When he takes a proactive attitude Wally starts to see that he can make a difference. It’s easy for us to recognise something that’s wrong. Sometimes it’s even easy to tell everyone about it and make a lot of noise. It can take a lot more effort and courage to be the one who starts to make things better.
Things don’t necessarily go all his way. Wally soon finds he is being pushed into someone else’s mould. He has his own shyness to deal with, but in trying to overcome it he ends up looking like a bad approximation of the very thing he hates—a smug smooth-talking politician.
When you’re under pressure to perform or to fit in there’s often temptation in trying to be someone else. But Wally shows that just isn’t a good look. It’s a bit like trying to fit into clothes that aren’t the right size. You either end up with bits exposed or in a tangled mess! Jesus knew that if you start stitching yourself into other people’s preconceptions, you end up with an embarrassing rip (see Matthew 9:16)!
Wally does finally get it together. But only when he stops being what other people want him to be. It’s not by borrowing from someone else but by finding his own voice that he finally becomes who he is—the honourable Wally Norman.
When we are honest with ourselves, with God and with the people around us, when we learn to live with integrity, then we’re on the way to becoming honourable.