Buzz Lightyear (2022): Movie Review

We went to see the Buzz Lightyear movie yesterday and I actually liked it quite a bit. I thought the story was developing in a non-predictable manner and the problems and challenges being faced by the protagonists were quite interesting and unexpected. For me the theme that stood out was the theme of ‘Failure’ and ‘shame within making mistakes’.

These are topics that are close to my heart because I have walked such points in my life many times and I know how tough it can be to stand up from making mistakes, sometimes even with really detrimental outcomes, and to then stand up from that and continue finding a reason and purpose to live. I mean that is what some people are actually facing in reality – not only ‘challenges’ as it is being called, but mistakes and outcomes that make you question your very existence.

I found that when I had arrived in such a point in my life, the only way to move foward was to drop all expectations about myself and my life and to communicate with the people in my life. Start including everyone in my life and reality and see where I can be of support, and most importantly: where it is that I need assistance and support. That is how you create yourself anew.

It is as though Buzz Lightyear cannot forgive himself. He has to be ‘the one’ that is going to ‘save everyone’ to fix the situation. Except that the more he tries to ‘save everyone’ the more it leads to more consequences. What comes through is that his unwillingmess to forgive himself and his stubbornness to be a saviour actually reveals a superiority belief – where ‘only he’ is able to succeed alone by himself. Except that ‘alone’ he appears to be going nowhere…

In an interesting scene where he and his companions are stuck together in a time-sensitive trap, he still approaches the situation from the vantage point of having to save everyone. At this point someone in his team actually says that they don’t need him to save them, they need him to work together with them. And indeed, by being humble to the reality of the situation and realising that he needs to give up his specialness and simply work together, he and his companions form a team that is one unit of combined strengths which succeeds to break out of the trap.

I thought that was really interesting: because I have often also found that when working in a team, I have to stop myself from making assumptions and actually need to slow down and communicate with everyone before I can act – and when I do eventually act my actions actually represent the team-effort and not simply my individual will.

This is the lesson of Buzz Lightyear: a process from superiority to humility and actual real care for his fellow companions as equals. Perhaps that is also the way forward for humanity and all of us who feel we have ‘failed’ and made ‘unrepairable mistakes’: don’t take yourself so seriously and include others into your life.

Day 402 - Communication and Agreement

I recently finished my last bachelor exam and as I was walking back to the train station, I wanted to buy a waffle. Arriving at the kiosk, I decided against the waffle and went for a hot chocolate instead. 

When I stood on the platform, waiting for my train, I had the impression that my hot chololate did not have any taste at all. It was as if I was drinking a cup of hot water. I got annoyed and I felt cheated, because the drink was not cheap. For that price I should get an actual hot chocolate, and not 'hot water'... 

Although my first thought was to go back and talk to the Kiosk lady, I started to dismiss the idea, telling myself that it will take too long (my train would arrive in 10 minutes) and also I did not want to be "one of those people that complain". When I stopped myself from participating in these thoughts, I realised that there was still enough time before the train would arrive and that consquently I had no excuse to not at least try. 

I left the platform climbing the stairs and walked back to the kiosk. Again I had a thought of discouragement when I saw the amount of people standing in line at the kiosk. I proceeded anyway, and in doing so it appeared that only one person was actually standing in line, while the rest stood there waiting for someone else. 

When I got to speak to the kiosk lady, I made sure that I was calm and friendly. I said that I was sorry but that when I drank from the hot chocolate it simply tasted like hot water. She was like: "Oh really? Well let me make you another one then!" She made a new one from the machine, but I said to her that it still had no taste... After some back and forth communication, and her making sure that her machine was working properly, she decided to manually add extra cacao powder to the hot milk (yes, it was actual milk, not water) and this time it did taste like hot chocolate. 

I was happy that she went through the effort to fix the drink. For some reason had I expected that she would be stingy about the whole issue and that the conversation would be not so pleasant at all - but this proved to be entirely unfounded. She was very mature about the whole thing and vey accomodating. 

Afterwads I was happy that I had made the step to communicate, instead of simply accepting the experience of feeling 'cheated'. This way I gave both myself and the lady the opportunity to give the best of ourselves, instead of blocking myself with assumptions and ending up being frustrated and resentful. 

It came down to it that the machine was not distributing sufficient cacao into the drink - and it was the first time someone actually said something about it to her. 

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Day 330 - The Design of Giving up

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to have defined myself within and as 'giving up' - believing myself to be 'giving up'.

How/where/when did I create myself within and as this experience? In school where I believed the whole thing - that which is expected of me - to be impossible, and thus I gave up.

I forgive myself that I have in school only performed to a limited extent - not investing the whole of me within the belief that it is impossible, and therefore why should I even risk giving it my all.

I commit myself to reveal to myself and allow myself into my full potential as self-movement and self-dedication as self-expression.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to have experienced school as 'limitation' and as a prison, instead of seeing it as potential and as possibility. I realise and understand that education is/was not a 'container' but an opportunity for self-empowerment and self-enrichment.

I realise and understand that I determined my experience in school through believing myself to be a slave and powerless, instead of realising my power as self-creation and self-will.

With regards to the cycles of giving up: I realise that I am not real yet, yet I have the power to walk a decision to become real as life.

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