Inside Out gets Sadness Right [Spoilers]

Pixar's Inside Out was about five emotions personified into characters that live inside of a little girl's head and basically influence highly or even control what she does.  There are a lot of different messages mixed into the movie, some of which I agree with and some I don't.  But, overall it was fun movie that is worth seeing.  I'm only going to focus on one of the the way they handled sadness.

Sadness and Joy are the two main characters.  Joy is the leader and she is not a fan of Sadness.  Joy doesn't want Sadness to influence Riley (the little girl) in any way.  Joy attempts to ignore Sadness,  confine her to a tiny circle drawn on the floor, and even escape from her all together by leaving her behind.  This reflects the way people will do just about anything to escape from feeling sad, or pain, or especially any kind of suffering.  We have endless amounts of entertainment to distract us from any feelings of sadness, and a plethora of medications for even the slightest of discomforts, even the ones we cause ourselves such as eating so much food we get a stomach ach.

All of Joy's attempts to get rid of Sadness' influence backfire only causing more problems.  This is what happens to us when we ignore our sadness, run from it, or try to bury it deep within ourselves.  When we do this rather than dealing with the source of sadness we cause ourselves even more problems.

The best lesson in the movie occurs when Big Bong, Riley's imaginary friend, becomes so sad he can not continue their quest.  At this point Joy tries her best to cheer Big Bong up, but nothing she does works and she becomes frustrated with him because he refuses to be happy.  Sadness on the other hand sits down with him, listens to his pain, acknowledges how in makes him feel and enters into his suffering with him.  Big Bong is comforted by this and is soon able to return to his normal self.  This revels a very powerful way for us to help those we know who are suffering or depressed.  If you know someone who has experienced a tragedy or is going through something very difficult, we should not run from that person, or try to cheer them up, or even come up with solutions to try to "fix" them.  The most loving thing to do is accept them, accept that they are sad or suffering.  Be willing to empathize and be with them in whatever it is they are going through.  We don't have to become sad as well, but we should be willing to be calm, peaceful, and listen to them without interrupting or coming up with solutions.  Most of the time people don't need others to fix a situation for them, they just need someone to listen to how they feel and what they are going through.

Later, when Joy is all alone in the pit of forgotten memories, she finds happy a memories and rewinds it until it becomes sad.  She realizes that it was because of the sad moment that the happy moment was able to occur.  This revels a deep truth for us.  That without the experience of sadness we don't truly know what happiness is.  This is also true for pain and suffering, someone who has a healthy pain free body often takes that for granted until they experience some kind of pain.  Then it becomes clear what a blessing being without pain is.  Sadness, and pain enhance joy and pleasure.  Thus sadness and pain are allowed to co-exist with joy and pleasure so that when we experience something good we appreciate it more and understand it more because we know what it is like to be without it.

During our natural lives we will all experience some kind of sadness or pain.  This is not something to be afraid of or to be ashamed of.  Even Jesus experienced sadness when Lazarus died and in the garden before he was arrested.  The best thing we can do is acknowledge our sadness or pain and unite it to Jesus' suffering on the cross, asking Him to use it for the salvation of souls.  While the movie didn't point out this part, it did do a good job of showing that sometimes it is okay to be sad and that accepting your sadness for a time can bring about healing.

A Restless Heart

I am the kind of person that likes to keep busy.  When I'm at work, my best days are the one filled with so many tasks I may not complete them all by the end of the day.  At home, I tend to keep busy with must do tasks, such as buying groceries or doing the dishes.  If no must do tasks are available I  will usually go to entertainment.

When I'm going through some sort of crisis time in my life, such as dealing with an unexpected move, or job change,  I have so much to do there is not time to think, just do.  But, when everything is going well, it's then I start becoming restless.  Despite being in a very good situation, I start scrutinizing my life looking for any imperfections and I feel somehow dissatisfied.

I don't think I'm alone in this.  We are constantly seeking more of everything and yet are never satisfied.  I don't think this is a new problem either.  Since the beginning of time mankind has desired more.  [Genesis 2:16-17] "The Lord God gave man this order: 'You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and bad.  From that tree you shall not eat;.....'" we all know what happened.  Adam and Eve ate from the one tree they were forbidden to eat from.  They had everything, a great place to live, a relationship with God, all kinds of food, all the free time they wanted, and yet they were not satisfied.  If the first two people to ever walk the face of the Earth were not satisfied then how can any of us ever hope to be satisfied?

Adam and Eve's problem, like many of us today, is that they wanted to be gods themselves rather than relay upon God.  God happily gave them everything they needed, and yet when given the option to do it themselves they thought, 'yes, why rely upon God when we can be gods ourselves?'  [Gn 3:4-5] "But the serpent said to the woman: 'You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad.'"  The desire for more was a part of the human race from the beginning.  God gave Adam and Eve everything and taught them good and bad Himself, but they wanted more, what if they could know of good and bad themselves?  What if they could be gods themselves?

Why did God create us this way?  Some have called it a God shaped hole in our hearts.  St. Augustine sums it up this way, "My heart is restless until it finds its rest in Thee."  We were created to love and be loved by God.  Only God can satisfy us and He has made us so we feel incomplete without Him, because of His great desire to love and be loved by us.  His creations can often serve as a balm, but only He himself can calm our restless hearts.  When we try to do it ourselves we only end up getting ourselves into trouble because only God can see the whole picture and we were created to be in community with Him and with each other, not solo beings who live only for ourselves.

Adam and Eve knew God, but not entirely, God had not yet reveled the Trinity and thus mankind's understanding of God was limited.  We have a much greater opportunity to come to love and be loved by God today because we know of God the Father, Son, & Holy Spirit.  However, our knowledge is still not complete.  It would not be surprising to me if human beings can never fully understand the greatness of God in all of their eternity, much less their lifetime.  So the ache in our hearts and the craving for more remains.

This craving is meant to draw us closer to The Lord's Sacred Heart.  We make a mistake when we seek to rely upon ourselves in our search for more and we start seeking fulfillment from the wrong things or from people who can not quench our desire for a perfect and infinite love.  Instead we must surrender more and more to God and allow Him to provide for us, this will bring us more peace.  

The trick is not fearing that restless feeling, but recognizing it as call from the Lord.  Perhaps the Lord is calling us to surrender something to Him, or perhaps He desires to be with us.  Perhaps the next time we get that restless feeling, like something is wrong with our lives, we should stop and allow the Lord to fill us up with His love and goodness, and simply be still for a moment in His presence.   

A few Pics from E3 2015

Tomorrowland - Review [Spoilers]

A few weekends ago I went to see Tomorrowland.  Despite only mediocre ratings from the general public and movie review websites, I really liked the movie.

When first asked if I liked the movie the day after seeing, I said that I liked it because of the message the most.  When asking a friend at work I was told that it was alright but way too "preachy."  When looking at movie reviews online I see comments such as: "Unfortunately, their recollection is riddled with not-so-subtle messages about protecting the environment and treating others with kindness." - Brandon Davis  Perhaps if the message were more subtle people would have liked it more?  However, I'm not sure why a message of protecting the environment and treating other kindly is a bad thing... But, I don't think that was the main message in the movie anyway.  I found the actual message to be very inspiring and uplifting, not "preachy" or in my face.  If any of you have seen the movie Happy Feet that movie is one that was far to "preachy" for me.  Tomorrowland was not.   

The Good

Tomorroland got some tears out of me at the end which tells me right away that I really liked it because I always cry at movies I really enjoy.

My favorite thing about the movie was the message.  There were several messages in this movie, never give up, protect the environment, don't talk to strangers... lol  But the main message for me was a Biblical one.  [1 Corinthians 12 among others] This chapter talks about how each person has different gifts, and abilities, and yet we are all members of one Body of Christ.  Every single person has value and something they can bring to the table and it's when we use the gifts, talents, abilities, we have been given that we can change the world.  This was the central message of Tomorrowland.  Athena mentions several times that Casey is special. She is special because she has not given up.  She was doing her small part to try to make things better in the area that was important to her in her small corner of the world.  At the end of the movie we see a group being sent out to go find other people like Casey.  People that are using whatever gifts they have no matter how seemingly small or insignificant they may appear.  The people chosen came from all over the world and were doing all kinds of different things, but really they were all doing the same thing, which was refusing to be apathetic and trying their best to give back and make the world a little brighter.  The idea was not to preach and say these people are better than you or me, it was to inspire.  If they can do it, I can do it, you can do it!  We can all use whatever we have, great or small to make the world a better place! 

Other than that beautiful message, I really enjoyed all of the action scenes and the mystery behind who Athena was and what Tomorrowland was about in general.  My favorite action scene was the fight in the comic book shop.  As a nerd, that was a great location for a fight and it was so cool to see a little girl kicking butt. 

I also loved all of the parts when Frank was a little boy especially the jet packing part and the Tomorrowland city was amazingly well done visually.  I also loved the way Frank and Casey managed to get to Tomorrowland because I'm a huge fan of any kind of secret doors, passages, contraptions etc. and they did a fantastic job with that. 

The Bad

There wasn't too much bad for me.  The only slightly bad things was that some parts of the movie seemed too similar to other movies I've seen before, but I don't think I can really blame Tomorrowland for that, that's just my fault for watching too many movies! LOL

Other than that, as a Catholic, I tend anticipate or wait anxiously for the end of the world because I am excited to see Jesus' return.  I don't know if that will happen in my lifetime obviously, but Tomorrowland seemed to say we can avoid the end of the world altogether if we all work together.  I do not believe this is true.  While I do believe it's a good thing to try our best to make the world the best place we can, I do not think we can prevent the world from ending entirely because the Earth has an expiration date so to speak.  However, the positive message was strong enough that this little defect did not bother me too much. 

Overall

I say this is a good movie to support.  Not recommended for small children due to the action which was rather violent, but everyone else should feel free to check it out.

Adventure Quest #1 - Back Bay View Park

In an effort to see more of California I've decided to start going on some Adventure Quests.  I may share some of these adventures with you lovely folks. 

Adventure Quest #1

Back Bay View Park - Newport Beach CA - 2 Stars

Today I visited Back Bay View Park.  I was intrigued by this park because of it's close proximity to the water and thought it would have some good views.  To my disappointment this park is incredibly small and doesn't even have it's own parking lot.  I parked in the Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort parking lot which is free for 30 minutes, but then goes up to $8 for the first hour then up from there depending on how long you stay.

I took the trail up to the top of the hill overlooking the bay.

As you can see there is a decent RV camping lot and some kind of cool looking water obstacle course plus the resort with a pool.  On the west side of the bay, not visible in this picture, there was tent camping on the beach as well.

I only spent an hour at this park, but it probably could have been walked in less than 30 minutes.  Here is a view of the park:

Most of the path is paved which is nice for biking or walking, but it's really too small of park for much.  There were two picnic tables and a few benches, but no shade.  So visit on a cool day if plan on picnicking here.

All of the plants looked like natural California scrub brush type plants, as I like to call them, and some cactus.

There were few flowers, some beetles, lizards, bees, and mourning doves.

If you visit this area you may want to skip this park and plan on spending some time along the bay itself at the Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort.  They had a playground right on the beach, with a roped off swimming area.  No lifeguard though, but the water was super calm anyway.  I also spotted some food trucks near the northern end of the parking lot.

I give this adventure 2 stars out of 5.