Our society in which we live in today turns their back on grief. It’s an emotion that makes us sad, and most mainstream films nowadays don’t explore the theme of grief. How does one cope with it? Is it really an important emotion?
Pixar takes a stab at answering these questions in their latest movie, Inside Out. There’s a powerful moment in the movie when Riley’s imaginary friend Bing Bong is in tears because his magical song-fueled rainbow rocket wagon is mistakenly thrown in the memory dump where it will be forgotten forever. Joy tries to cheer up Bing Bong in every way she can, like making silly faces and urging him to think happy thoughts, but it’s all in vain as Bing Bong continues to weep. Sadness then sits next to Bing Bong and sympathizes with his loss, and Bing Bong begins to share all the happy memories he and Riley had through his musical rocket wagon. Sadness helped Bing Bong overcome his grief, while Joy was no help whatsoever to Bing Bong in his despair.
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| "This is the circle of sadness. Your job is to make sure that all the sadness stays inside of it." |
Without the emotion sadness, we can’t express our grief. Although joy is a very important emotion to have, it doesn’t help us in times of discouragement. Because sadness can be an uncomfortable feeling, human nature wants to avoid it. But it’s okay to be sad, and it’s okay to cry. In fact, it’s good to cry. Without these feelings, it’s impossible to move on with life and begin to heal and move on from our grief. Sadness helps us to express our grieving emotions with difficult situations in life.
The Bible advocates being sad in difficult times as well. On The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew five, Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” And Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
Actually, I nearly screamed in the movie theater when I saw this. It was definitely thought-provoking, especially from an animated movie. Though Pixar is known for it's tear-jerky moments, I think that this movie shows exactly why Pixar does make the first 10 minutes of Up. And I think they've (and you, by extension) got it right. It's similar to what we discussed in class in how Jesus felt a whole range of emotions. He cried (for many different reasons, most likely experiencing all of them at once). And if he did, why shouldn't we? Great post, friend.
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