A Falcon walks into a credit union…
Anthony Mackie (The MCU's Falcon) at the 76 Venice International Film Festival 2019.
I’m a Marvel fan. I love Stan Lee (and all of the creators) and the wonderful heroes, characters, and adventures he created for all of us to enjoy on the big and little screens. I’ve never read the comic books, but I’ve watched every Avengers movie … and they just keep coming. If you’re not a fan, try watching a few movies. They’re full of adventure, humor, and many life lessons!
One of the story lines involves one of the most powerful beings, Thanos, and his desire to “fix the universe” by exterminating half of the population. If he kills 50% of all living things, by his logic, life might have a chance to survive and be better. Thanos gains the power to do such a thing, snaps his fingers, and instantly half of all living beings everywhere disappear into dust. Family and community members are torn apart. For five years, the world and universe is half of what it was, and people are living totally different lives due to the trauma of the event.
Five years later, the Avengers come along and are able to reverse the damage and restore all of the beings who were “blipped.” Those who disappeared into dust, now reappear five years later at the same place they disappeared. They haven’t aged (nor are they aware they disappeared), but those who were still left on Earth, and on every other planet, have five extra years under their belt. Weird, huh?
This event is now known as The Blip.
Along comes the newest show, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. This series takes place post-Blip. In the first show, Sam (Falcon) visits his sister, Sarah. She’s having issues making ends meet with the family business and is contemplating selling their house and fishing boat. Sam convinces her that they can go to the bank, refinance everything, lower the payments, and get a fresh start.
Of course, like all other credit union geeks, my ears perk up during this part. There are LOTS of issues with this scene that goes something like this:
Sarah (after uncomfortable back and forth): “Are you trying to help us or indict us?”
Banker: “You have no income over the last five years.”
Sarah: “How can you have income if you don’t exist?”
Sam: “I’ve been gone like several billion other people.”
Banker: “I know your family has banked with us for generations, but we cannot approve you.”
Sarah (after leaving the bank): “I knew they weren’t gonna help us. It’s not their job.”
After yelling at the television, “Why aren’t you using a credit union?!”, I realized that if they were, this scene would make no sense. We would have worked with Sam and Sarah and created a solution for them … just like we are right now with so many of our members during the pandemic.
The pandemic has changed us forever. We are even more connected to our employees and our members. We jumped into action and just made stuff work. Our operations, products, services and methods of doing business evolved quickly. The question is, when the pandemic is “over,” will we go backward to the way we used to do things, or will we continue forward?
We can change the game by making the game work for everyone with constant improvement and evolution. We don’t need a pandemic or The Blip to make that happen. It’s a state of mind and state of doing. As credit unions, it’s who and what we are and what we always have been. It’s still the best time ever to be a credit union. We just have to keep reminding ourselves of that fact and acting on it.
As Sam and Sarah left the bank, Sam said, “We’re gonna get that loan. I don’t care if I have to go to every bank in the city.”
Hey, Marvel. The Avengers need a credit union! It absolutely is our job to help people. We’re superheroes, too.
