Day Four - Where The Wild Things Are

I finally figured out why I hated the movie "Where The Wild Things Are." I was expecting an idyllic and charming look back into a childhood memory filled with intensely saturated colors in varying shades of blue and green. I wanted to get back to my childhood and feel warm and safe inside a world teeming with imagination and fantasy. I didn't want to see a child with oppositional defiance disorder, I didn't want to see a fantasy world of creatures who were mean, petty, and boring!

The colors in the film were dry and brittle with no warmth. And although the puppets were exacting in their detail (aren't they always with Jim Henson?), the characters became tedious and nerve wracking. The only monster that left me with any sense of intrigue and interest was the bull headed guy who never said a word! Him, I grew to love. The others I didn't even want to try to figure out!

I get the message of the movie, that expecting anyone to make life better for you, when you are not willing to make any changes and sacrifices yourself, leaves you worse off than when you started!

This is not a lesson that I have learned easily in my life. There are still days when I would love someone to come and whisk me off my feet and sweep me up onto a white horse and fix all my problems!

Not that my problems are heavy or onerous (I love that word and love to create moments to use it - it rolls off the tongue with such ease!), but they are annoying and I get tired of living with them and trying to manage them. I hate it even more that most of the problems I have, are problems of my own making. I created them either through stupidity and willing ignorance or inaction when action was required.

Do you suppose if I had been swept up long ago I would still be Bi-Polar Type II? Would I have lost my job? Would I have wrecked my car? Would my parents have died? Would I have a life of fame and wealth right now? Would I be any happier than I am at this moment? Would I have arrived at this moment earlier in life rather than later? There are no answers to any of these "Would I have?" and how foolish to spend the time to figure them out when there are so many more pleasant activites I can spend my time on. No one can answer "What if?" with any degree of certainty.

I'm not even certain I want my "What ifs?" answered. I like where I'm at and don't want to go back and change anything. My life is uncomfortable at times, even painful and there are still times I just want to bury my head under the covers and wait until...well, until something else, but something else is usually worse so I can't even take a romantic pleasure in my own feeling of world-weariness.

Although I love my world of "Wild Things", I don't want to live there. I don't mind the occasional visit to my own but someone else's would be nicer, if only because it's different than mine and if I listen carefully I might learn something from them, and might be able to help them.

I still don't like the movie. I go to movies for a certain amount of escapism and I didn't get ANY from that movie. I was thoroughly left in my life and although I do love it, I do appreciate it more when I can escape it even for a moment. So, there is something good that came from watching "Where The Wild Things Are", I appreciate my life a little bit more than I did before I watched this movie.

So go to the movie, but don't expect your childhood dreams of fantasy lands to be larger than life, but do expect to see something un-anticipated, a little frightening and even maddening.