Courtesy of Andy McKay, the Seattle Mariners' director of player development, here's a little lesson for today:
While at first glance it doesn't make sense as to why the man being crushed by the boulder cannot see the snake from where he is, or if he has also been bitten by the snake yet is seemingly still unaware of it, or how the snake got into that little nook in the first place, one thing is clear: This illustration could have used a little more time in the oven.
But don't direct your aesthetic criticism toward McKay, because he did not draw it. While it would be very nice to imagine reigning AL Rookie of the Year Kyle Lewis being absolutely baffled by this artwork in a team meeting, it is not an original work from the Seattle Mariners' relationship meme depot. Out of curiosity, I tried to find the origin with a reverse image search and ended up at a 2018 thread on LIHKG, a Hong Kong–based forum similar to Reddit. Somewhere on the journey of reshares and reposts, on its way to the Twitter account of an employee of a middling AL West team, the original speech bubble attached to the woman had been lost.
According to an unnamed source who may or may not be the mother of Defector VP of revenue and operations Jasper Wang, the snakebitten woman is saying, "Let go of me, there's no way I live." The translation of the original forum post, which has six thumbs up and 80 thumbs down, reveals that McKay's message is slightly different than the intended lesson: that men and women can be bad at communicating. From Chinese to English:
The man didn't know there was a snake underneathThe woman didn't know that there was a stone on it pressing the manIt’s all for the other person’s consideration, whether letting go is relief or another kind of painWomen can't see the pressure of menMen can’t see women’s painthis is life……We should communicate more with each other and advance and retreat together!
If you don’t let go, there is still a little hope. If you let go, nothing is left…In this life, some people laugh at you, some people envy you, some hate you, some are jealous of you, some look down on you, some frame you, and some misunderstand you.It doesn't matter, tell yourself, life is like this!Everything you do can’t satisfy everyone, don’t lose your own nature in order to please others, because everyone has principles! The you in others’ mouths are not the real you,The same eyes, different views.The same ears, different listening methods.The same mouth, different sayings.The same heart, different thoughts.So, just be yourself. I leave the rest to my conscience…''
As repayment to Andy McKay for sharing this powerful post with us, I share this equally powerful post with him. Please show it to Kyle Seager when you get the chance.
