Thursday, May 1, 2014

Should I really 'let it go?'

Since Frozen appeared in theaters thousands of kids all over the world have emerged from the theater beaming and doing their best to imitate Idina Menzel’s voice singing “Let it Go” at the top of their lungs: “no right no wrong, no rules for me, I’m free!”  If you look at the crowd leaving one of those theaters you may have seen me singing along with them, much to the embarrassment of my wife and kids.

Can you blame me?  Who wouldn’t love that entertaining, and in many ways inspiring story?  One of the highlights of the movie is when Elsa runs from the castle into the mountains and sings "Let it Go" as she lets her ice powers have full sway for the first time.  It gives me goose bumps just thinking about that amazing crystal ice castle just rising out of the ground as she sings that the world cannot hold her back anymore.

 "Let it Go" from Disney's Frozen
As enthralling as that scene was, I found myself asking, what is the message here?  Perhaps there isn't one and it was just a catchy tune and Disney's magical animation.  Certainly some of the messages that have risen to great popularity aren't logical, or inspiring, factually correct, or in some other way meaningful to humanity.  Case in point, "Call Me Maybe," possibly the most annoying song ever written.

But in the case of "Frozen" I think that there must be more.  Perhaps the reason this is nagging at me is because those same words could also teach a potentially destructive lesson.  So, should I really "let it go?"  And if so, what do I "let go" of?  Now if I had magical powers over ice then this would be easy.  I'd let them go this very instant and build some amazing castles and a couple of snow monsters to guard it.  You'd find me downhill skiing all year long.  Unfortunately, I’ve tried and tried and no ice powers seem to be emerging, so perhaps this doesn't apply to me?  Do I have hidden powers to build something amazing if only I would break free of the constraints that are holding me back?

Since this line of thinking wasn't getting me anywhere, I decided to try asking the opposite question.  What should I be sure not to let go of?  What would it be like to live in a world where we all let everything go of every constraint that we didn't like.  Would this be a world that we would want to live in.  I’m surprised that nobody on youtube has taken hold of this idea to make satire on “Let it Go.”  Let me give you 13-year-olds out there some ideas in case you want to be famous.  Just cue up the music to “Let it Go” with the camera trained on a somber, nervous looking boy in a restaurant.  He’s feeling restrained, held back by the social norms that bind him.  Then the music reaches him and he has an idea.  He lets his burden go in a moment of sweet release.  We hear a deafening ripping noise as the restaurant erupts in his flatulence.  The fever spreads and the restaurant's guests head to the street dancing and trailing flames.  You can imagine how this could escalate.  Before long we have the crowd smashing the store windows to take the things they want.  Those windows can't hold them back anymore!  Let's leave that scene before it gets any worse.  But we certainly there are a lot of things that we certainly should not let go.  "No rules" doesn’t always make life better.  I think that we would all do well to consider this with regard to many of the traditional values that everyone seems to be letting go of these days.  We should consider very carefully whether we are really making the world a better place, or just making it stinky?

So, now I'm back to the other question.  What do I need to let go of?  How do I live up to my hidden potential and make my ice castle begin to rise out of the snow?  What have I been holding back that needs to come out and shine before the world?

I can't think of anything relating to myself, but I can think of a few examples in others.  For example, my daughter has the most infectious smile and the funniest personality you can imagine.  She loves to laugh and even my weak jokes can get her going, and the infection quickly spreads to everyone around. But like many of us at her age, when she goes out in public or when strangers are around, she is quiet and serious.  Why does she hold back that bright smile?  Imagine the happiness she could spread if she would just let that go.  She could cause a castle of glittering smiles to rise all around her.

All of us must have something that we need to let go.  Many of us are too shy.  Some of us have talents that we haven’t discovered because we are afraid of failure.  I wonder how many amazing singing voices there are out there that have never been developed?  I'm sure that mine is not one of them so it will certainly remain hidden, thank you very much.  But could there be a bunch of Idina Menzels out there that have gone undetected because they didn’t have the courage to stand out?  Or how many kids have you known that have missed out on a lot of fun at dances because they were worried about what others might think?

Or maybe somewhere there is a kid who’s English teachers convinced him that he was a horrible writer, and that he’d never write anything that anyone would ever want to read.  And maybe that kid just wrote an essay about a movie that made him think, and perhaps someone even enjoyed it or thought differently about something because of it.  It definitely wouldn't be a shimmering castle rising out of the snow, but maybe it would be a start.

If you're dying to see the video again you can get it here:
http://youtu.be/moSFlvxnbgk

and if you haven't seen it already, check out the amazing Lexi Walker singing with Alex Boye:
http://youtu.be/DAJYk1jOhzk

as well as the Piano Guys' rendition:
http://youtu.be/6Dakd7EIgBE

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