The Genius of Frozen II
That’s right, I said it: The Genius of Frozen II.
I've been raving about this movie for about a year and this is (part of) the reason why. Generally speaking it follows a typical hero story arc but there is a depth to it that I think comes from the way they make the implicit explicit. Through the soundtrack alone you can find more helpful guidance than a lot of saccharine-self-help crap you see online.
I remember the first time I watched the movie I felt a gentle pull on some heart strings. The second time I watched it I ugly cried (haha seriously). So I think we will start with the part that gripped my attention first:
The Next Right Thing
A recurring theme through-out the film of “what do you do when you don’t know what to do?” The next right thing. But how do you know what the next right thing is?
The theme comes to a climax near the end of the film when Anna is alone, lost in a cave thinking that her sister Elsa has died- a brilliant metaphor. The lyrics of the song (included below) speak of the weight of grief, the experience of being lost, hopeless, aimless, alone, and uncertain of what the future holds.
Things we have all experienced and felt at some point in our lives, due to the simple nature of mortality and the uncertainty of existence. The magnitude of the experiences and feelings will vary but they are simply a fact of life. Some changes are small and the ripples are less dramatic, other changes will rock you to your core and leave you questioning everything in your life- and then what do you do?
So, back to Anna - alone, lost, and grieving - and yet there is something inside her that drives her forward, something to live for.
A future worth moving towards.
Amidst all the uncertainty and the pain. This vision of the future holds the key to answering our original question - what do you do when you don't know what to do? The next right thing- it is any action that gets you nearer to the future you desire, big or small steps, steps forward either way.
This is where the Frozen II wisdom gets even better.
We have a tendency to make our problems bigger than they are and ourselves smaller than we are. We tend to make our problems so big and overwhelming that we don’t even begin to attempt to solve them - not helpful if you want things to change. And we make ourselves small by pinning ourselves to our view of the past (rather than dreaming bigger and growing out of our limited history).
That's not to say any of this is easy, it's not. Bringing into fruition any sort of order, any sort of change, any desired state takes work. The point is to make the workload and process sustainable, it should be work- not toil.
Somedays that looks like the tiniest steps of caring for yourself by brushing your teeth. Other days it is something bigger and riskier - an overdue, challenging conversation or putting in two weeks notice at a job you loathe. No matter the step, it is a movement toward your goal because you have a clear picture of where you want to be headed. With this clear vision you can confidently make decisions because the question comes down to "does this bring me towards the future I want?"
If not, then it's not the next right thing.
Disney's Frozen II The Next Right Thing lyrics:
"I've seen dark before
But not like this
This is cold
This is empty
This is numb
The life I knew is over
The lights are out
Hello, darkness
I'm ready to succumb
I follow you around
I always have
But you've gone to a place I cannot find
This grief has a gravity
It pulls me down
But a tiny voice whispers in my mind
"You are lost, hope is gone
But you must go on
And do the next right thing"
Can there be a day beyond this night?
I don't know anymore what is true
I can't find my direction, I'm all alone
The only star that guided me was you
How to rise from the floor
When it's not you I'm rising for?
Just do the next right thing
Take a step, step again
It is all that I came to do
The next right thing
I won't look too far ahead
It's too much for me to take
But break it down to this next breath
This next step
This next choice is one that I can make
So I'll walk through this night
Stumbling blindly toward the light
And do the next right thing
And with the dawn, what comes then
When it's clear that everything will never be the same again?
Then I'll make the choice
To hear that voice
And do the next right thing"