Unrealistic expectations

So, we went to see Robots tonight. Now, I don't think anything I say here will be spoilery per se, but if you really don't want even the slightest detail, stop reading now.

OK?

OK.

Nice little movie, really, but something bugged me about it near the end. See, there's this thing with kid's stories. Many of them follow a formula, wherein you face a really big, seemingly insurmountable obstacle, and if you can manage to overcome that one thing in a burst of Herculean effort, the rest of your life gets handed to you and you live happily ever after. No more day-to-day struggle to get to where you want to be, but you get to spend the rest of your life pursuing your heart's desire. All this requires of you is a little bit of luck, a humorous sidekick, and a heaping spoonful of moxie.

Now, part of me still believes life is really like that. You get it pounded into your head in cartoon after cartoon, heartwarming Disney feature after feature, and you eventually decide the world really works that way.

But it doesn't. Not for most of us. Very few people face a brief but harrowing trial by fire that inevitably leads to the Prize, that moment with the Wizard of Oz when we get our just reward. In the real world, progress is sketchy at best, most days, and you spend a lot of days chasing your tail, making no headway at all. When you do move forward, it is at a snail's pace. There are victories, but they are roadmarker victories. They are signposts on the way to that goal sitting over the horizon, not Somewhere Over the Rainbow moments.

It's not that it's so bad, actually, it's just that our folklore ill-prepares us for what life holds. I realize that drama and fiction are an imperfect mirror for reality, but do we really have to beat home 'lessons' that don't really teach us reality?