The Problem of Olaf

By now, unless you have been living in a cave, you must have seen all or part of Disney’s megahit puberty-analogy Frozen.  If you haven’t seen it…you probably know all the songs…by heart.  If you have any connection with kids, you know the adventures of Anna and Elsa, Kristoff, Hans and Sven.  And while they all have their interesting quirks, I need to talk about the major problem of Frozen:

                Olaf.

                Olaf is a snowman who comes to life magically (we are not told exactly how this happens, but just go with it) and helps the protagonists solve the problem of ‘eternal witness.’   We will bypass the problem of whether Olaf is actually alive, because even he is unsure:

                Elsa: Olaf? Are you alive?

                Olaf: I….think so!

                We will just assume that he is alive and proceed from there.  But other problems become evident within a few seconds of meeting Olaf.  The heroes Anna, Kristoff, and Sven (the reindeer) are looking for Elsa and they are wandering through a magic winter wonderland, when all of a sudden they hear the voice of Olaf the snowman.  After some funny shenanigans, Kristoff and Anna tell Olaf that they are trying to bring back summer.  Notice then what Olaf says:

                Olaf: Oh, I don't know why, but I've always loved the idea of summer, and sun, and all things hot...

                Did you notice the word ‘always…’  Exactly how old is Olaf? According to the timeline of the movie, he is maybe a day old, but more than likely he is under 24 hours old.  So….when exactly did he think about summer? How does he even know about summer? How could he have ‘always’ thought about something that he has never experienced and really never knew about.  Where did he get the idea of summer? Did he meet other people and they told him? Or did he read a book (but he would have had to find the book…)  We have a couple of options to solve this.

                The first would be to believe in a preexistent Olaf.  We know from the movie’s prologue that Anna and Elsa used to make Olaf the snowman when it snowed.  So maybe his consciousness was stored in that snowman and he learned back then.  The idea would be then that he would melt back into the snow only to be reawakened the next time it snowed and the next time Anna and Elsa built a snowman.  His life would then be a horrible cycle of being built and melting over and over again.  Of course there were about the 15 years that went passed when Anna and Elsa did NOT build a snowman.  What was Olaf doing then? Was he trapped in limbo? Did he know what was going on? Can you imagine the horror of our poor snowbound friend as he waited and waited to be come alive in snowman form, but nobody actually built a snowman? That actually helps create more drama for the song Do you want to build a snowman?  We can imagine our poor Olaf silently screaming out ‘Yes’ in horror and desperation as he watched Elsa ignore Anna’s pleas to build a snowman.

Help! I'm trapped in eternal pain! 

                But the idea of a pre-existant Olaf seems to be discounted by the film’s ends.  In one of the last scenes, Olaf is about to melt when he says:

                Olaf: Hands down, this is the best day of my life.  And quite possibly the last.

                Olaf is aware that he is dying (and even though he laughs at it, we can see that some sort of finality there). So, he is expecting then to die and go away…so he has no recollection of being in limbo, so maybe that’s not the answer.

                The second suggestion would be that Olaf isn’t really alive at all.  After all, we still have Olaf’s uncertainty about the question.  We also have his acknowledgement that he has no real active biology.

                Olaf: I don’t have a skull.  Or bones.

                So how then can Olaf know things (like how to sing or dance, knowing about knocking, or knowing about love).  How does he do this?

                I think if we go down this route, we have to see Olaf as a projection of Elsa’s unconscious self.  After all, Elsa is the one who makes Olaf come ‘alive’ and she is the one who continues his existence at the end of the movie.  Perhaps, Olaf represents a more innocent part of Elsa’s mind, one that that finds joy in the simplest things.  We know that Elsa can sing…because the entire movie is about the song Let it Go, although she technically never dances in the film (she pawns the old guy off on Anna).  So maybe Olaf is simply the projection of Elsa’s inner self.  This would explain Olaf’s sudden desire for Anna and Kristoff and Sven to share summer with them (Olaf: and you guys will be there too).  Why would he want Anna there? Maybe Elsa is using Olaf to reach out to her sister…..

             

Olaf is frozen.....just like my heart! 

   But this doesn’t explain the need to keep Olaf around at the end of the movie.  Elsa could have just made him go away as she came the realization that she loved her sister and could be emotionally reunited with her.

                So maybe….just maybe….we need to go with the third explanation.

               

  Olaf is really the villain of the movie.

                This explanation requires the same preexistent Olaf, but sees his apparent non-knowledge of this as a deliberate deception in order to maintain his existence.

                We know that Olaf is around in the beginning.  Elsa manifests a snow that looks exactly like Olaf. When Elsa gets angry later on the film, she sets the entire kingdom into a perpetual frozen snow and ice kingdom. 

                Who exactly benefits the most from this?

                OLAF! 

If the kingdom is in perpetual snow, then he is the only one who is perfectly adapted to the weather.  While everyone else will freeze, Olaf can walk around unabated and is the only one who can really rule the kingdom.  Besides, if this was truly Olaf’s plan from the beginning, this helps make perfect sense of:

                -Olaf’s reluctance to tell Anna where Elsa was (Olaf: Yeah, why?)

                - His disobedience as he bursts in on Anna and Elsa’s conversation

                - His desire to get Anna away from the trolls before they can help her (Olaf: why aren’t you running?)

                - His interference with Anna and Kristoff (Olaf: I guess Kristoff doesn’t love you enough to leave you behind)  In this understanding, that last line can only be read as a devious plot on Olaf’s part to keep Anna and Christof apart so they can’t kiss and make summer come back (he assumes, like most of us that the act of true love was the true love’s kiss).

 Behold the face of horror!!! 

                And so you see…there is a problem when it comes to Olaf and his existence.  No matter how you cut it…Disney has some ‘splaining to do.

The Preciousness of Life

Tonight I sat in a little Italian restaurant in Saratoga Springs, NY thinking about life and death and the things that are most precious to us.

                I am truly convinced that the most precious gift we have in life is the gift of our families, of our loved ones and our friends.  God lets us view his love for us through the people who love us and whom we love.  Sometimes they aren’t the nicest, or happiest, or best people.  Sometimes they hurt us and sometimes we hurt them.  Sometimes we take them for granted and sometimes they take us for granted.  Sometimes we don’t realize the very special moments we have when we have them and sometimes we can treasure up those moments forever.

                Nowhere is this more true than when we lose someone close to us.  Nothing can replace a person when we can no longer look at them, no longer hold them, or touch them, or hear them, or be annoyed by them.  It is in those moments when we realize the magnitude of our loss and the enormity of our isolation.

                The beautiful things about people is that no one’s relationship is quite the same and no one can experience the same person in exactly the same way.  Think of a mother when she holds her baby the first time.  That baby is going to grow up, make friends, laugh, jump, play, get a job, drive a car and all sorts of wonderful things.  But the mother who is there moments after that baby came into the world has a unique experience of that person that nobody else can lay claim to.  When we think of the special people in our lives, what do we think of? Who do we think of?

                There are so many special memories I have.  I remember one day when I was a pastor, and it was raining and there was a loud crack of thunder and my oldest daughter leapt in my arms.  It was the first time I felt truly needed by my daughter.  I remember the way my other daughter laughs when she thinks she is being funny.  I remember the way my mom used to make pretend that Gingerbread cookies had voices and cried out in pain when we ate them (yes…that explains a great deal about me).  I remember my wedding day with all of the nervousness and excitement that was going on in those moments. 

                I wonder what people remember about me sometimes.  Do people just remember the way I irritated them or the funny things I do? Do people remember that I tried to sing and dance my way through the Pajama Game? Do people remember the times I loved them, the times I hated them? Do people remember my anger, my frustration, my nerdiness?

                As I write this, I am preparing to help a family say good bye to their son.   I never met their son and so I do not have any memories to share.  But I think about their loss and I cannot comprehend what it must be like to say good bye to a person you gave birth to.  Or a son that you nurtured and loved.  Do you think about their tiny feet and the way they smiled and laughed? Do you think about the way they broke the furniture or made you so mad that you didn’t know what to say or to do?

                Sartre was famous for saying that “hell is other people,” as if all you needed was contained within yourself and other people merely served to distract you from that.  I think just the opposite, I think that heaven is other people.  Because as we love and experience love, we can truly see the face of God. 

                Enjoy the people you are with, because you won’t have them forever.  Treasure each moment, each memory, each special time you have…this day and every day.

Aliens in a Strange Land

No issue divides the political landscape in our country today as much as the issues at the US-Mexican border, where thousands upon thousands of people have crossed the US Border from Mexico.  President Obama has initiated the creation of ‘camps’ to house the people and has asked the US Congress for billions of dollars to deal with this issue.  The opposition by Congressional Republicans has stressed that these people have broken US law and are here illegally and pose a threat to national security.  Recently, the Governor of Texas Rick Perry has raised the National Guard with the idea of taking them to the border in order to ‘secure the border.’

Much like the Border itself, this issue brings to the forefront the issues that divide this country.  Our choice of words has become politicized and your allegiance is based on what descriptors are used.  Are the people “illegal aliens,” “undocumented workers,” “migrants,” “family,” or “law breakers.”  The questions people are asking are as divisive as any in recent past.  Should these people be given amnesty and be allowed to stay here? Should they be returned to their country of origin…or is this even possible? Should they be arrested? Shot? The identity of these people is up for debate as well.  Are they children streaming in from South America? Are they convicts?

How do we respond to an issue like this?

Pope Francis identified one possible response earlier when he pleaded that the people be treated with respect and be given the basics for survival.  He has a point that should not be lost especially on the Churches of this nation.  Jesus stressed the need to take care of the poor and the outcast and the hungry and the thirsty.

Michael Savage of the radio show The Savage Nation decried these statements and represents the other side of this spectrum.  He argued that we should be concerned first and foremost for our “culture, language and borders,” and he views these recent incursions as a threat to our country. In response to this crisis, many people on this side of the spectrum want to build walls and fences and guards and defend the country at all costs.

Perhaps most people are somewhere in the middle of these positions, wanting to help the immigrants, but at the same time wanting to secure the borders and to send the people home. 

For me, this issue is personal because I have spent some time at the border trying to understand.  One of the most bizarre moments I’ve had in life was standing in a colonia outside Juarez, Mexico.  This neighborhood was made up of houses that were constructed with old pallets, cardboard, scrap metal and whatever else could be used to give shelter.  Extension cords ran across the dusty and unpaved ground as people tapped into whatever power source they could to have power.  Children were sometimes left locked in these houses while their parents walked miles to get into the city to work.  The amazing part was that just a few miles away, within sight was the luxurious American side.  Houses with swimming pools and air conditioning and abundant food and two cars in the driveway.  Their kids went to day care or school and didn’t have to wonder what was going to happen day after day.  Having seen that and experienced this, I understand everybody’s desire to escape and to get into our country.

I remember one night in Neuvo Laredo, seeing the people gather at the town square, wanting to make their move and take their chance to get to our side of the border.  If they could just get there, they would reason, they could have enough to eat.  They tasted opportunity and they wanted it.  Most would be caught and sent across the border where they would wait for their second chance.  Others would risk a more dangerous border crossing, relying on coyotes to get them across.  Some would face death to get across…and I understand that.

The United States has always been about immigration.  The border with Mexico was not closed until the 20^th century.  Most of our ancestors came here one way or another…most ‘legally’ but many ‘illegally.’   We came for the same reasons these people want to come, they want freedom and opportunity and chances to provide for their families.  Or others want to come to escape poverty.  Others want to come to practice criminality, just as it has always been.

But one of the people I know at the border has been waiting for his chance to become an American citizen. His daughters are American citizens and he has been training to be an ophthalmologist for several years.  As he explained the process to become an American citizen, I thought he was joking.  No matter where you live in Mexico, you have to make it Juarez to apply for citizenship.   Some people use all their money just to make it to Juarez.  Then they attempt the crossing and if caught, they are forever banned from the legal process. This process to become a legal resident of the United States can average between 7 to 10 years.  When I met this individual, he had just had his first interview, which took him two years to wait for (and if you miss the meeting, that’s it). But this individual and many like him are committed to the process.  They want to do things write and they strive to keep things above board.

Is giving people who crossed legally amnesty fair to individuals like my friend? What about the millions of legal residents who have gone through the process to become a citizen and have spent years of their lives waiting for this moment? Where they come into play when it comes to these questions?

I admit that I, like our country, am very torn on this issue.

As a Christian, I am told to welcome the sojourner and to give aid and comfort to those in need.  I stress the need to do that here in this case.  We have to provide food, water, shelter.  I am told by my religion that this should be done with hospitality and not with grumbling.  We should not just be giving the ‘bear minimum’ but welcoming them with true hospitality.  My religion tells me not to worry so much about my country because I belong to a bigger kingdom, the kingdom of God and that maybe moments like this are just moments in which God is at work, redistributing the world.

As an American, I have deep concerns.  First and foremost is security.  Can we keep our country safe from the threat of terrorism if we do not ‘secure the border’? How can we keep tabs of all the people coming into the country? What about our economy? In an already sluggish and slow performing economy, can we afford to take in more people who need jobs?

Are their good answers to these questions? I’m sure there are.  But in order for us to reach them, both sides have to acknowledge the concerns of the other.  We have to realize that we are in a new world, a different world, a new epoch where answers don’t get divided neatly into one party or the other.  We have to realize that we are the aliens in this new world and ask ourselves how we want to be treated.