Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Frozen and my life philosophy.

If you haven't seen Frozen you should. Not because it's the best movie in the world, it wasn't. I didn't even like it as much as Tangled and definitely as much as the Disney movies I grew up with, but it also spoke to something that was very much on my mind. You might not have seen these things in the movie that I saw because I was already contemplating writing a blog very much like I hope this one will turn out before I saw it, but Frozen reaffirmed so much of what was already in my brain that it made me so happy.

Here's my latest thoughts on life and my choices in it. In my anxiety my world view often feels very black and white, but it kind of is for everybody. The way I've come to see the world is through two choices. Move with faith or move with fear.

*Spoiler Alert for Frozen*

Here's the basic plot of Frozen, a girl is born with magic powers allowing her to make snow appear whenever she wants and when she's upset when she doesn't want. She is taught conceal, don't feel in regards to this power. Teaching her to believe all emotion is dangerous(This feels familiar..) This leads to fear, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate and hate leads to suffering. In fearing all emotion and therefore contact with people(If you don't believe those are correlated we can definitely have a discussion on the matter, that's a post/essay all by itself) She is afraid of hurting those around her because of past experiences, her fears are reinforced by her father, following what he believes the nice trolls told him. He chose to act out of fear, reinforcing fear in his daughter Elsa's life. Causing her to be a recluse, sure that any knowledge of her magic will cause the people of her land to fear her. (An important note I think I missed is that as a child she injured Auna, her parents took her to trolls to be healed, this is when they said that fear will be Elsa's downfall, or bane, or something like that. setting her on a course of fear throughout her life. Very Oedipus Rexish, right? (side note in a side note, I'm reading that for class right now had to put it in there))

Auna(That's her name, right?) Elsa's little sister, emboldened by her imagination, taught to her from Elsa as a child sees a world through a lens of hope. Never swaying from that path, from believing in love at first meeting, to following her sister through a blizzard(caused by her sister) fighting through being struck down by her sister, both physically(Okay, magically) and emotionally by her sister. She never gives in to fear, and continues to act out of hope. The ice in her heart from being struck by her sisters heart continues to freeze her body, but never her soul. Her one true hope is an act of pure love, so she goes home believing in her true love at first sight. He's a jerk, Olaf(The snowman) Is awesome and helps her recognize what love is. She realizes she's in love with the peasant who's been guiding her through the mountains, goes to find him so she doesn't die. After watching him walk away into mountains he's lived his whole life, while the only thing keeping her alive is the fire that the snowman started for her she walks out into a blizzard in the hope that she would find him.

Elsa, who was found and imprisoned by jerkface. (I don't remember his name, and it's an accurate description though there's a part of me that feels it's necessary to point out that he is a ginger) Escapes, but continues to be hunted by jerkface, but now his intent is to kill her after claiming Auna is dead and that they got married so he is the rightful king. After Elsa dies, but she killed her sister, so she deserves the death penalty, which he will gladly inflict upon her. He meets Elsa on the frozen fjord, tells him of Auna's death while not so far away she continues to seek for real lover boy. At the news of Auna's death Elsa is so distraught that the blizzard ceases, allowing Auna to witness jerkface attempting to kill Elsa. She runs puts herself in the way, freezes and shatters his sword. She continues to act in the hope for her sister's redemption and goodness of heart.

However, she also happened to act on her true love for her sister. Therefore breaking the spell of her doom. Elsa sees that through love and hope, there's a chance to calm the storm of fear inside of her. Allowing her to finally take control of the storm she has caused which has doomed her kingdom. Rather than being afraid of her, her people now see her ability as a miracle, a miracle that can create beauty(I believe Elsa starts to believe this in the song Let it Go, which is why I'm absolutely in love with that song)

If her father had realized that rather raising her in a mire of fear, allowing it to breed and fester, he had fostered it as a strength, of something to be proud of, as something that can bring hope and beauty to the world, then perhaps all their lives could have been saved from such heart aches? With my anxiety I choose every day to believe in hope or fear. Those are the two spirits residing within my soul, the storm rages within soul, I can find the good and beautiful or I can succumb to fears within. Some days I choose hope and some days I do not. I continue to fight that fight as I believe everyone does in some form or another.

 I pray hope will find its way to your heart.