*spoilers*
It was such a surprising storyline. It took the Prince (Hans), Princess (Anna), and Villain (Elsa) of the beginning and turned it on it's head: Hans becomes the villain, Anna the hero (usually represented by a prince), and Elsa the victim (usually represented by a princess). Kristoff the ice chopper comes in as a side show and helper: the story doesn't center around Anna and Kristoff's romance. It centers around self-sacrificial love: sister to sister.
The ending was so theologically deep it resonates within me, but I feel sad because I think the citizens of this frozen country will gloss over it with a layer of Olaf the snowman. I'm worried people won't think about what they've seen, and recognize the call to open our hearts and be ourselves.
When Anna sacrifices herself for her sister Elsa, she acts from true love. The love does not need to be a kiss; it's possible Kristoff's kiss wouldn't have even worked. The love needed to come from her own heart, not anothers. We all have the power to kill and save ourselves. It's not another's burden to make us alive; it's ours.
Elsa needed to love Anna in order to free herself. Anna is freed from Elsa's spell by loving Elsa, and Elsa is freed by loving Anna. Letting people in - loving them - is the only way we can be free from fear and from loneliness.
I love how the trolls at the beginning say "fear will be her enemy." I perked up my ears, but her father glosses over it and locks her up "to keep her safe", encouraging fear, caution, and demanding that she learn to control herself. I say, if I heard that fear would be my child's enemy (which it is), I would encourage her to jump, to open up, to fight the fear in the only way possible: by exercising courage. Elsa's parents encourage her to hide, to keep others safe, to do whatever it takes to keep her sister safe.
I love the line in Elsa's song: "I'll be the good girl I have to be."
This is a story for the millions of good girls in this country.
I love how Elsa goes wild when she finally breaks free. I love how she loses one glove and then the rest of her starts to come undone, and with one taste of freedom she's gone on the wind. Her song about embracing who she is and finally feeling alive touched me more than I'd like to admit.
But it's wrong, too. She's both gone over-board and still in hiding. She's getting villaness-y, talking about her power and self-sufficiency. But it's momentary. Most good girls have this moment when they come out and start being themselves. They go a little overboard.
But she's also staying away. She's only herself where she thinks it won't hurt anybody. And yet, her unreleased fear still has it's grip on the country below. She's not afraid to be herself where she thinks it won't hurt anybody -
But our staying away hurts far, far more people than us showing up as who we are.
I'd like to put something forward:
You can not love someone when you're not acting from your true heart; when you're not being yourself.
This is why: The predicate is missing. "Love you" is not a sentence. "Love you" means nothing without the understood "I" before "love you."
I love you.
How can someone say "I love you" but have all of these statements true about them:
I am speaking through my mask but I love you.
I am not myself but I love you.
I am scared to show up as who I am but I love you.
You can't be there for someone when you're not there.
And so many people are not there.
You knock on the window and ask "is anyone there?" But there are no lights on inside, and no one comes out to greet you. They may have a nice front yard, but they're not home.
If Elsa had stayed away forever, the country of Arendelle would never have had the queen it needed. Our hiding gets us into more trouble that it's worth. In Elsa's case, it caused her and her sister loneliness. It caused a huge snowstorm and her sister to get an ice chip in her heart, a chip of hurt and fear - from what? - A betrayal.
Our hiding hurts those who want us, there.
Good girls can't go on forever as they are. Eventually they burst, like Elsa, and disappear to some unapproachable arctic castle, more themselves, but farther away from everyone than ever.
It would have saved a lot of trouble if Elsa had opened up the doors to her heart before it froze and shattered into a thousand pieces.
Elsa was sacrificing her need for closeness by trying to protect her sister. But pushing away those we love is never the right path. It leads to hurting them rather than protecting them. Instead of being the hero and protecting them, we become the villain and hurt them with our absence.
It's hard, opening the door slowly. It's hard to crawl out of your masks (or suit of armor) without shooting off the wall in fear and wild abandon. But that's what I'm trying to do. Crawl out of the armor which keeps me in the dark and walk into the light which illuminates the beauty in who I am.