Into the Wild
This weekend, like so many, I was thrilled to go and check out Spike Jonze & Dave Eggers screen adaptation of the beloved children’s book, “Where The Wild Things Are.” What I didn’t count on (but should have) was that my life would be an exact mirror of what I was seeing onscreen.
To me, the film depicted the book in a way that was honest and insightful. On the surface, it’s a children’s book about the way kids escape to imagination as a way of coping with difficult emotions.
But what I really see (and what the movie pulled out so brilliantly) was the hidden message within the book, which is that there’s an awareness, an understanding and a brilliance that lives within the psyche or subconscious of all children… and that awareness is the energy of innocence.
The beauty of innocence is that it allows one to look at sometime or experience something with fresh eyes, unaffected by pain, punishment and invalidation. It allows one to see and experience the present as it truly is – and it’s an amazingly powerful gift.
The problem with innocence is that it cannot last. inevitably, we get hurt. Our outlook shifts. We become disillusioned. Things just never end up being what they seem. There’s a part of us that wants to shield ourselves from this disillusionment – and we do this by never really experiencing the present, which in turn keeps us from ever really being fully in innocence. I see this with parents, “protecting” their children from reality.
From where I work, energetically and spiritually, the truly great part of being human lies in regaining innocence where it has been lost. You begin in innocence, you experience hurt, pain, or disillusionment, but then you have the opportunity to heal. And you are allowed to create innocence again. By shielding yourself or others from this hurt, you never really complete the cycle and therefor your growth can be stunted. You can stop moving forward, and stay mired in pain and invalidation.
In order to heal, Max had to go to a place where it was safe for him to experience healing. And his healing was processing thru his imagination, where the characters of his dreams played out – in very real ways – the pain of his real life. When he returns home at the end of the film, and watches his mother fall asleep on the table in front of him, he experiences innocence again thru the forgiveness he feels for his mother – and of course, for himself.
Life is a continual cycle of innocence, pain, and rebirth. To deny yourself any of those three keeps things from ever feeling complete.
As I alluded to at the beginning of this post, I was also given the opportunity to renew innocence in my own life yesterday as well. To move past the pains of the past, and look directly at what I’ve always hoped for in the future. And very innocently (some may say – even childishly) jump in with both feet and hope that this time it might really be mine to have.
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