My friend, Ashlee Lakin, wrote her thoughts on Inside Out. These are some of the best “deep” thoughts I have seen on the movie and wanted to share them with you all. Much has been written about this new movie over the last few weeks, but I have to say I really enjoyed this write-up by Ashlee the most.
I know, I know, my family is WAY behind the times because we just saw Inside Out tonight! Sheesh. I have seen lots of reviews posted but I have not ready ANY of them. Not even one! This is my take with some deep thoughts at the end!
MOVIE SYNOPSIS
Inside Out is about a little girl named Riley. And her emotions. You take a trip inside Riley’s mind and see her emotions where 5 are given names. Joy. Sadness. Anger. Fear. Disgust. All have their own color and unique look. They stand at a type of “control panel” in Riley’s mind. If an emotion wants to express themselves, they step up to the control panel and take over. When this happens, you see that particular “emotion” on Riley’s face or in her words.
MEMORIES
There are spheres that represent memories and each emotion has its own memory color. Long story made short, Joy and Sadness get swept away after arguing and get lost among all of Riley’s long term memories. They spend the movie trying to get back to the “command center”.
All this time, Sadness wants to touch these “core memories” of Riley’s. They are joyful memories about her old home and friends in Minnesota. Joy protects the core memories from Sadness by carrying them in a bag. She doesn’t want Sadness to ruin the joyful memories.
In the end, Riley tries to run away from her parents and get back to her happy life in Minnesota.
Of course running away is a terrible idea and since Joy and Sadness are “missing”, Riley can’t access these emotions.
THE EPIPHANY
Finally, Joy and Sadness find their way back to the “command center” and Joy realizes that the only way Riley’s parents will truly know her heart, and experience family “connection”, is if Sadness is allowed to touch the memories. So Joy hands the memories to Sadness and as Riley returns home, she begins to cry. Only then does she tell her parents what’s really going on in her heart. The joyful memories have become sad reminders of all that she misses in Minnesota.
So What?
It was powerful to me. Here’s why.
My main take away is that I ALWAYS want to shield my kids from Sadness. Always! I don’t like her for myself or for them. But Sadness was the ONE emotion that brought Riley BACK to her parents!! It allowed her parents to see her heart (and we all long for that!). From that point on, they acknowledged her sadness and they were able to move forward toward joy! I like that.
Deep Thoughts
God uses sadness to bring joy. If we know no sadness, we know no joy.
I think of my son’s last baseball game of the season and how sad he was afterward. He was SO discouraged that he didn’t get a hit in the semi-final game. He had worked hard for almost 2 weeks on his hitting to prepare for this game! Oh how I longed to protect him and shield him from that sadness and anger! Guess what? I couldn’t!! NOT ONE BIT! And it killed me.
Then I think of how heart breaking it must’ve been for Michael Jordan to have been “cut” from his high school basketball team. He was demoted to the Junior Varsity team! Michael. Jordan. Demoted. But THAT motivated him to become the best basketball player of ALL TIME!!! Wowza.
Deep Thoughts – Part Deux :)
We need not run from Sadness. Sometimes she is hand in hand with Joy and if we deny ourselves her presence, then we miss all the good that is in store. This is my prayer for my son. There is more to his story. There is more to OUR stories and we need not run away or hide. Let’s try to run toward God and those we love. It is there that we find real life.