Relax

This season is always a busy one. There's activities, plays, parties, family gatherings, shopping, recitals. It's kind of amazing how many things go on during the holidays.
In the movie Rascal, Willard North says something like, "What if we went through life and came to the end and we had never stopped to look at the flowers?"

Now is a perfect time to stop and look around.

This a great little video about stopping to look around and appreciate the beauty and memories that surround us.

In this month of December, I think the busiest month of the year, we really should stop, look and think. Stop what you're doing for a minute. Look around and see the blessings. Think about those blessings and aprreciate them.

Christmas is a time for family, friends and love. It just happens to be super busy. But that doesn't mean we can't stop and slow down to rest.

In a fast moving, fast growing world, don't forget to Stop, Look and Think

Frozen (the Disney movie)

So, yes, I too have been swept up in the wave of Disney's Frozen fans. And before I start I want to warn you that this paper will be stuffed with spoilers so, beware.

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Q: What can we learn from a movie with a queen, her sister, a comical snowman, an ice delivery man and a reindeer?

A: A lot. There's probably even more then the points I'm going to mention.

We're going to jump to different parts in the movies so, bear with me; but first, let's introduce the main characters:

~ Elsa, princess/queen of Arendelle, possesses special powers over winter elements.
~ Anna, princess of Arendelle, younger sister to Elsa. (Anna pronounced 'Onna' since they're in Norway.)
~ Hans, prince of the Southern Isles (Hans pronounced so that it rhymes with 'lawns')
~ Kristoff, an ice deliveryman.
~ Sven, Kristoff's best friend, a carrot-loving reindeer.
~ Olaf, a snowman who's eagerly awaiting summer.
~ Grand Pabbie, the troll king.

As said, or sung, in The Sound Of Music, "Let's start at the beginning, a very go place to start." How true.

So, the film starts with men getting ice from a frozen lake. While working, they sing a song titled "Frozen heart" where they sing about how ice is powerful and dangerous. They also warn us to beware the frozen heart.

Now we switch settings and we arrive at the palace where Anna is wide awake and she gets Elsa to accompany her down stairs to the throne room. (At least I think it might be the throne room.) There Elsa uses her powers to create an indoor winter wonderland, which include a snowman named Olaf who likes warm hugs. They both have a blast until Elsa starts making "tickle bumps" for Anna. Anna jumps from one to the next one. She's going too fast. Elsa warns her to stop but Anna is having too much fun. Elsa slips and Anna, unaware of her sister, keeps going. In an attempt to save Anna, Elsa sends a stream of ice/snow towards her sister but ends up hitting Anna in the forehead. Elsa runs to Anna. This is how Anna gets a white streak of hair ( kind of hard to explain). Something I noticed in this part of the movie, was when Elsa starts crying over Anna, the ice on the floor, which had been swirled with beautiful patterns, gradually turns into a boring, white color all over. I wonder if this is symbolic. But in what way?

The family then flees to the trolls where Grand Pabbie takes the ice out of Anna's head and changes Anna's memories so that she no longer remembers that her sister has powers. Grand P then tells warns Elsa of her gift and how fear will be her enemy. Now, at this point, something kind of weird happens. Maybe the king and queen weren't listening or maybe it's because Grand P is just a bit vague and doesn't stop the king and queen from their plan to keep Elsa safe, which they say right in front of him. Either way, Elsa is locked into her own room, the number of servants is reduced and all of Elsa's contact, besides her mom and dad, is cut off. This was obviously not the thing to do. This only makes Elsa more scared of herself. They also come up with a saying, "Conceal don't feel." I think this saying, along with every other change, reduces Elsa's confidence. Personally if it happened to me, I think I'd feel like a threat. Maybe I'd even run away because being locked up really doesn't help boost moral.

Moving on and changing subject; let's talk about Hans. Hans is an interesting character. He seems like a great, supportive, loving, caring sort of guy but he ends up being the guy whose real intention is to make Arendelle his own. He's got this idea in his head because he has twelve older brothers so he won't be able to be king of his own kingdom. So, he had to marry in somewhere. Anyhow, this kind of winds in with not marrying someone you've only known for a day (or a couple days) or a couple hours. (The only other movie that I've seen/noticed that they've talked about not marrying at love at first sight is Enchanted.) A scene in the movie explains this in a funnier way:
Kristoff: "What's his [Hans's] last name?"
Anna: "Of the Southern Isles"
Kristoff "What's his favorite food?"
Anna: "Sandwiches"
Kristoff: "Best friend's name?"
Anna: "Probably John."
Kristoff: "Eye color?"
Anna: "Dreamy."
Kristoff: "Foot size?"
Anna: "Foot size doesn't matter."
Kristoff: "Have you have a meal with him yet? What if you hate the way he eats? What if you hate the way he picks his nose?"
Anna: "Picks his nose?"
Kristoff: "And eats it."
Anna: "Excuse me, sir, he is a prince."
Kristoff: "All men do it. "
Anna: "Ew. Ah, look it doesn't matter, it's true love."
Kristoff: "It doesn't sound like true love."

Skipping around; there's a song that the trolls sing entitled, "Fixer Upper." It's really a very cute song, there's just one part that I disagree with. There's also a part that I do agree with. So, one of the lines says, "We're not saying you can change him, 'cuz people don't really change." That I do not agree with. People can change. That doesn't mean that they'll wake up one morning a different person but you can start changing in little ways and ultimately become a changed being. The line that I do agree with says, "We're just saying that love is a force that's powerful and strange." I don't know if it's strange exactly but it is powerful.

Elsa thinks that by running away she'll be free. I've heard/read this many times but the only place I can remember it in is in Gregor the Overlander: The Curse of the Warmbloods. Gregor's grandma says that even if you run away, whatever it is you're running away from will follow you.

Olaf is the loveable, huggable, summer loving snowman and comic relief. One of my favorite Olaf lines says, "Some people are worth melting for." This is said during a part of the movie where Olaf is talking to Anna in front of a fireplace. Anna warns Olaf that he'll melt but Olaf replies that "some people are worth melting for."

Something else I noticed was that both Frozen and Tangled were about two girls who were locked up and confined and found a way out.
There are many other things that I could list that stood out to me but I don't want to bore anyone or spoil it for those of you who might not have seen it yet.

Lord of the Rings

Just really quick, if you haven't seen or read The Lord of the Rings then some of this, especially when I refer to characters, won't make sense. (And I'm going by the plot in the movie because I haven't read the books...yet.)
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So, I watched Lord of the Rings The Two Towers a little while ago and I was really struck by Gollum.
Now, we all know Gollum as the possessed, evil, mad character; but there's a scene in The Two Towers where Gollum is fighting with himself. And it just really got to me that Gollum had a good side, he was just so possessed by his dark side. And then he changes, he becomes Smeagol, an actually loveable character.
It seems that Frodo looked past the overpowering Gollum and saw the terrified, lonely, abused Smeagol. If this can't teach us about judgment and seeing people's potential even when they can't see it for themselves, then I don't know what can.
Although Gollum ends up winning in the end, this just goes to show what a little trust and care can do. Frodo saw who Gollum/Smeagol could become. As it says in 1 Samuel 16:7 "the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."

Dieter F. Uchtdorf said that the "topic of judging others could actually be taught in a two-word sermon. When it comes to hating, gossiping, ignoring, ridiculing, holding grudges, or wanting to cause harm, please apply the following: Stop it! It’s that simple. We simply have to stop judging others and replace judgmental thoughts and feelings with a heart full of love for God and His children. God is our Father. We are His children. We are all brothers and sisters. I don’t know exactly how to articulate this point of not judging others with sufficient eloquence, passion, and persuasion to make it stick. I can quote scripture, I can try to expound doctrine, and I will even quote a bumper sticker I recently saw. It was attached to the back of a car whose driver appeared to be a little rough around the edges, but the words on the sticker taught an insightful lesson. It read, “Don’t judge me because I sin differently than you.”"1

Isn't that great? If you find yourself judging someone else, stop it! 

Everyone has been judgmental but that doesn't mean we can't stop. We should stop. We need to stop.

Judging is a form of bullying, but we won't get into that topic because that's for another time.

This is also a great movie that can teach us about miscommunication.
When Faramir tricks Frodo into admitting that Gollum/Smeagol is his companion and Faramir captures Gollum/Smealgol, Gollum starts questioning Smeagol about Frodo's loyalty because they believe he tricked them.

In The Return of the King, Smeagol still seems to be doubting himself for a little while. And, again, even though it was a facade, Frodo refused to believe that Smeagol was in the wrong. This says a lot about how deep Frodo's trust in Smeagol was; which is why Smeagol's betrayal in the end is so terrible.

We all tend to be like Sam, we doubt and we see the outside appearance. (Sam is one of my favorite characters so don't get me wrong here.) We tend to judge and compare. And judging and comparing is normal, natural human behavior, we just have to make sure that it doesn't blind us of the things that are important.
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1 https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/04/the-merciful-obtain-mercy?lang=eng

Dumbledore's Army then and now

So, what does Harry Potter have to do with our nation today? A few months ago I would have been totally blank. But, believe it or not, Harry Potter does have something to do with our nation today. So do a couple other books like The Giver by Lois Lowry, The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins and The Freedom Factor by Gerald N. Lund. A lot of books and movies can teach us things, we just have to be open and paying attention.

Sometimes it's easier to see what the book/movie is telling us and sometimes it's not. For example, in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Dolores Umbridge gives a speech when she arrives. At the conclusion of her speech, Hermione comments on how enlightening Umbridge's talk was. Harry and Ron misinterpret Hermione and think that she liked what Umbridge was saying. And understood it for another thing. Hermione explains that what Umbridge was saying, though not very clearly stated, is that the Ministry of Magic is interfering at Hogwarts. We see later that the Ministry of Magic is indeed interfering; Defense Against the Dark Arts classes turn into Reading About the Dark Arts/no wands allowed class and Umbridge takes over the school.

Unfortunately, it's not so easy to see when people are taking over. It's almost always that way. And when we do know what's going on, we don't always do anything about it. Funny, huh? Well, we should be doing something, shouldn't we? Of course! We need to be like Dumbledore's Army. That doesn't mean we should be practicing spells in secret, it means we need to stand up and fight back. Our weapons should be our voices and our thoughts. We don't need force, just us, our opinions and views. I mean, it was with those exact things that our nation was born in. It started with the Puritans, a religious group from England seeking for freedom to believe and teach openly. And then we had a Revolutionary War in which we fought for freedom against oppression. And there was the American Civil War where we freed slaves, but unfortunately we would have to have a Civil Rights movement to finally gain everyone's freedom. And of course we can't forget all the other stuff in between like the Women's Suffrage movement.

So, how can we make a difference? First off, there's always writing political leaders. You can also go to city counsel meetings. I've been to one and it's actually pretty entertaining. (Of course, I'm kind of nerdy that way.) My Mom told me once that somebody she knew went to a city counsel meeting and found out that a building was going to be built in their town. The catch: the building would help boost the city's leaders financially. Then she was able to warn the town and the building wasn't built. Amazing, huh? I think so. Just think, one ordinary person ended up making a big difference. And it doesn't have to be a big difference, it could be a small one; it all adds up in the end. All you have to do is write a message or attend a meeting. It's just that simple.

What are you still doing here?! Grab your wand (aka pencil or pen) and get started! You think problems are going to fix themselves? Go on, get outta here; go do something today that can help the nation tomorrow. It's your homeland too, you know. Get up, you could do something as simple as supporting your town or city's leaders. You never know, maybe you'll be the one making a difference.