Meryl Streep

Into the Woods

Careful the wish you make

Wishes are children

Careful the path they take

Wishes come true, not free

Careful the spell you cast

Not just on children

Sometimes the spell may last

Past what you can see.

(Stephen Sondheim, Into the Woods)

Readers of this blog know that I love musicals. Today Suzanne and I saw Into the Woods. It’s a fascinating pastiche (what we sometimes call a mash-up) of the familiar fairy tales from our childhood, framed in an overarching story by James Lapine (writer of the book of the Broadway version and the screenplay of the movie version) and composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim. We meet Cinderella, Jack (from “Jack and the Beanstalk”), Little Red Riding Hood, and Rapunzel, among others. There are even two princes involved.

The movie boasts an all-star cast, including Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Christine Baranski, Anna Kendrick, Emily Blunt, Chris Pine (also known for his role as Captain Kirk in the new Star Trek movies), James Corden, Tracey Ullman, and others.

There was a village on the edge of the woods. Among those who lived there was a witch (Streep) and her neighbors. When a woman becomes pregnant, the greens she needs are only available in the witch’s garden. Her husband begins to visit the garden in order to get the greens. One day, he is caught taking the greens and some beans from the garden. To rectify this, the witch demands their firstborn daughter (whom she names Rapunzel) and lays a curse on the house that they shall be barren. Their son is born, becomes a baker, gets married, and he and his wife wish to have a child. But the curse of barrenness has fallen upon him as well; so to reverse the curse, they must travel into the woods to get the witch a specific list of items: a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn, and a slipper as pure as gold.

To get these items, the Baker and his wife come into contact with Jack, who is selling his cow Milky-White, Red Riding Hood, who is traveling through the woods to her Grandma’s house in her red cape, Rapunzel, with her yellow hair, and Cinderella, with a pair of golden slippers.

Much of the plot from that point will be familiar, as it encompasses the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales. However, the characters find that their happily ever afters are not as anticipated. Yet they manage to make a happy ending while slaying the giant who is terrorizing the village.

What do we learn from all this? Well, for one thing, who knew these characters knew each other?

But on a more serious note, as one of our Center’s founding ministers, Rev. Noel McInnis, used to say, “We have freedom of choice, but not of consequence.” In every moment, we choose what to say and do, what goals to seek — and if we’re committed to them, wishes come true — but not free. There is always a price to pay. There are usually unanticipated consequences. We get where we’re going, but often not without getting lost in the woods along the way. And when we’re lost in the woods, the only thing to do is keep walking. If you don’t go through it, you’ll never get past it.

The woods represent our fears and doubts. They can be frightening, but we must walk through them. We have to walk through the woods, not around them. Once we master these fears, they’re no longer frightening. When we come through the woods, through the fear, things turn out for the best — but mostly not in the way we anticipated. They are not as anticipated for the Baker, for Cinderella, for Jack or Little Red Riding Hood, but they wind up in a happy place despite the unhappy circumstances. New chapters are unfolding, and things are working out for them in a new and different way.

We also learn a bit about blame and how it prevents us from taking necessary action. The characters’ releasing of blaming each other finally enables them to defeat the giant and create a new way of life for themselves, one that they could not have anticipated.

And then there is that lush score, including “Children Will Listen”, from which I quoted above. This is an entertaining, profound, bittersweet, and extremely entertaining movie.

Into the Woods — you have to go.

The Giver — Love, Choice, and the Limits of Perfection

“If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be,” as Yogi Berra once said. If you want to understand what this means, go see The Giver.

The Giver is in the great dystopian tradition of Animal Farm and 1984, Brave New World, Atlas Shrugged, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, and so many more. (It also evoked for me memories of the Ring cycle and Lord of the Rings.) It takes place in a “perfect” society that has eliminated  war, pain, suffering, differences and choice. They have created a society where everyone is equal (except those who are “more equal,” of course), and everything is the same. Your job, your clothes, and all other aspects of your existence are chosen for you. The society’s byword is sameness, in which they see safety and liberation from all the evils of human history. Even the climate is controlled.

They also control the language. For example, they have abolished killing; instead they “release” people “to Elsewhere.” By controlling the words that people use, they control the ability to hold certain thoughts, and as we know, thoughts are the cornerstone of conditions. What we focus on expands in our experience, so if you can control the expression of ideas, you can limit the focus. (In many ways, “political correctness” does this.)

A young boy named Jonas is chosen to be the Receiver of Memories, a position wherein he will be called upon to impart wisdom to the Elders, using “the Memories”, including the collected memory of humankind. He is trained for this by the older receiver of Memories. “If I’m The Receiver,” Jonas asks his teacher, “what does that make you?” The reply is, “I guess it makes me The Giver.”

The training, he is warned, will require a lot of strength, because it entails a lot of pain. The pain isn’t so much physical as the psychic and emotional pain brought on by “the Memories.” But what Jonas also discovers is the importance of love, beauty, and all those other “things that make us human.” He is determined to share what he is learning and feeling, even though that is against the rules. He also falls in love with his beautiful friend Fiona, who does not know what to make of this.

In order to reawaken the Memories (and the feelings they entail), he must cross the border of memory. By reawakening the Memories, he can reawaken the ability of the people to live life full out, restoring the joy, love, and beauty that their utopia has taken from them. As Fiona says, “I know that there is more, but I don’t know what it is.”

At one level, this is a brilliant political commentary on freedom, individual expression, and utopianism. That Jonas’s friend, Asher, is a drone pilot is not merely a literary device. But there are spiritual lessons as well.

While Jonas is in training, The Giver tells him not to trust the limited thoughts that have been given to him, but to trust what is inside. Learning to trust our intuition is a key to spiritual advancement. It is one of the most important ways to allow ourselves live in joy, in the fullest expression of who we are and who we are supposed to be.

The Chief Elder at one point says that “when people are free to choose, they choose wrong.” And it is true that sometimes people make choices that do not serve themselves or others. But one person’s wrong choice is another person’s right one. More importantly, if people cannot choose wrongly, then they are not free to choose rightly, and it is the choices we make that define our lives.

In such a perfectly-ordered society, there is no room for beauty or love or any of “the things that make us human.” And yet, these things are central to our humanity. They are central to living the most elevated, human, passionate life that we can. Jonas’s struggle is to restore those things, for himself and for the society.

It is also a society with no diversity. Sameness precludes living your individual purpose and calling, which is essential to the joyful life.

It is that passionate life that enables us to reach for the greater, the richer, the deeper. And that is at the very core of our humanity, as expressions of the Divine.

This is a movie well worth seeing. It’s exciting, stimulating, touching, and very powerful

-Tim Phares, RScP