From the Inside Out

In case you haven't heard, there's a new Disney Pixar movie in theaters now, Inside Out. It's a unique examination of an 11 year old's emotional development. Among all of the jokes, visual appeal, and story telling, there were some great lessons that I could learn from this movie.

Katy and I purchased tickets, and settled in with our soda and popcorn; mine with the appropriate amount of butter - you know, the amount where you need some napkins to hold the bag in order to avoid having the butter seep through the bag onto your pants. I love movie popcorn!

Anyways - on to the movie.

In a nutshell, the movie centers around an 11 year old girl, Riley, and the effects that her emotions (Joy, Anger, Sadness, Disgust, and Fear) have on her everyday life. Riley's emotions affected her relationships, her hockey, her laughter, her desires, her decisions, and her memories.  The most important role her emotions play is in developing memories, but primarily core memories. Riley's core memories formed the framework for her personality. There's friendship island, hockey island, honesty island, goofball island, and family island.

The primary emotion that young Riley feels and drives her is Joy. So much so, that it is almost exhausting, even to watch. As a newborn, Joy was the first emotion she felt and experienced. Joy played a prominent role by instructing the other emotions how to use to control panel to engineer joy in Riley's life. Her world is thrown into a tailspin when her parents decide to move from Minnesota to San Francisco.  Sadness begins to exert a greater influence in her emotional development, and she has to learn how to deal with it. She begins to lose her sense of self. Her core memories begin to change. The islands of her personality begin to crumble. Riley decides to run away. Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust must work together to enable Riley to make the decision to return home.

Emotions are powerful things that drive us, and we must learn how to harness them to make good decisions. Memories are even more powerful things, but they are not developed from the source of one single emotion. Riley's memories, and ours, are a complicated mix of emotions. They may change over time. Memories may have started as joyful or sad, but in a broader context may have been the result of a more complex story. There are times where sadness, anger, disgust, or fear are appropriate emotions, and I'll have to deal with those times. Also, I'll have to try to teach Amelia how to deal with her emotions, and become a person of good character.

But for now...I'll hold this core memory of joy.