My 2 cents on Frozen

I have had a bee in my bonnet about this for a while now and I finally decided it was time to write about it.  Today’s subject: Frozen.

There was a lot of fuss about this movie due to a Mormon blogging individual and her myopic diatribe.  My hubby read the article before we went to see it recently and we discussed it at length afterward.  As you may be able to tell from the above I think it is a theory full of generalities, paranoia, small-minded us-vs-them mentality, and fear, but perhaps I am being to harsh... *shrug*

I will tell you right out, I bawled through the movie, especially during ‘Let it go’ and I intend to share why further on.  It touched my husband in a simple and beautiful way and I think left him and our teen Tim, better people for seeing it.

The message that is being communicated in frozen is not so specific as to apply to one cultural movement.  It is to everyone in the human race.  For Elsa it is to learn to accept, understand, and love oneself.  By doing this we can truly love the world around us.  And Anna is an example of the amazing sacrifices we are able to make when we truly love ourselves and those around us.  It is a poignant message of sisterhood and the importance of your family.

But to that “well behaved” Mormon Grandmother I would posit two other options to add to the basic message of Frozen:

Elsa & Anna’s isolation as a metaphor for everyone’s teen years

I am going to start with the obvious one…

Do those who feel different from the way the world is telling them they should feel relate to this?  Of course.  Do those who identify as LGBT relate to this. Yes.  Does that make that community the targeted message of this movie or are they just a part of the greater audience who needs to hear the message.

Here I would like to point out that we live inundated in a false idealized and unrealistic world.  All the people we see in ads and magazines are photo-shopped, we are told that what we eat is food and good for you when it isn’t (I am looking at you tomato sauce on pizza counting a veggie serving in school lunches), And the people we elect to be honest judges and guides to our society aren’t.  It has left everyone feeling at least a little alienated and weird.

No one feels ‘normal’, especially not when your body is changing everything you knew to be normal into curves and clumsy awkwardness that makes you feel like a total dork with a target over your head.  Our brains are being crammed with information on who to be, how to act, what to look like, what to learn, who to know and the worst advice ever: to follow your heart.  Every teen feels isolated, if you didn’t then you are the exception not the rule.  And Sadly many people do not ‘grow’ out of feeling that isolation, they have to struggle and fight with it all their lives.

 Now onto the one that has deep personal meaning to me.

Elsa’s Acceptance of herself as correlation to sexual abuse recovery

Here is a subject I sadly know plenty about.  When I was 4 I was molested, we will leave it there and not drag in more details as they are not pertinent to my statement.  I was left, at 4 to mull over the statements my abuser told me “This was your fault, You made me do this, You are a bad girl”  At 4 years old the mind does funny things to protect itself.  My mind believed that lie and for the next 13 years until I was a high school senior, I felt like a horrible unforgivable sinner.  I still struggle with that unnamed guilty feeling and the panic attacks it has always brought with it every night when I try to go to sleep.

In essence I felt I had to protect everyone from my sins, from the harmful nature I believed I was born with.  So like Elsa I hid it from the world and even partly hid it from myself.  However the effects were there and like Elsa I isolated myself from the world, from friends, from family.  I had to protect them from the truth about me.

It took me 2 different councilors and over 15 months of intense weekly visits to get to the point where I had rooted out the overprotective fallacies that had built up my young personality and begin (just begin) to re-assemble myself into a whole, healthy person.  The active counseling ended in 1998 and here in 2014 I am still assembling myself.

I remember the moment when I ‘Let it go’, and this is what made me weep tears of empathy, appreciation, and unity during that song.  I remember the exact moment when I looked inward and realized I had forgive my abuser.  That moment all the angst, they hate, the anger that kept me from trusting anyone just blew away like snow in a storm.  For me the storm inside stilled and the sun came out. And to paraphrase, there I stood in the light of day and I was finally, FINALLY free.

Even if no one reads this, I would like to thank all the wonderful people in my life who make it all worth sticking around through the hard times, especially my husband Steve.  And Gail Szkula, where ever you are, thank you for showing me the way to myself.

Also all who worked on Frozen.  In my opinion it is one of the most inspired movies I have seen in my life and I do believe it will do and has done a lot of good for a lot of people.

The Weekend and the Black Dog

Been a few days...  Here is the recap:  Friday night Steve and T. and I went to the late showing of the Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug.  It was the second time seeing it in theaters.  The first was 3D and the movements were weird and jaggy, nothing like that in 2D.  Also I am in love with Thranduil so... But I adored Lee Pace when he was in Pushing Daisies.

Saturday we got our Bountiful Basket (Which is an awesome program: Bountiful Baskets) and I made a bunch of yummy veggie dishes for my friends who gathered that evening for our every-other-week gaming or Setherday as we call it since that is the only day we see the Seth.  M ran the session and we had fun, it is looking like a fun adventure is brewing.

Sunday we went to church and Steve got a splint for his thumb that has been aggravating him.  I wasn't feeling top notch so I spent most of Sunday in bed.

Today I have checked the internet, mail, my shopping lists, and touched base with family.  Going shopping to fill my new freezer later this evening.  Evening shopping is the easiest and least crowded for me.

Also I finally watched this video:

As a life long sufferer of depression from a family rife with it, I appreciate this video.  Someday I will have to write down my depression development story.  Winston Churchill called his depression the Black Dog and it is a very fitting description.

Take care world.

Curry, Freezers, and Female Empowerement

Last night we defrosted the new freezer and got everything organized.  I am such a boring person, this new freezer space makes me giddy.  I will be able to save so much more time and money!

I also got my new cpap mask, oh it is so much more comfy.  Still I wish I did mot have sleep apnea at all.

Big for me today is this video:

Please watch, it is wonderful and to the point.  The world we live in is so hazardous for girls and their self esteem and we need to do something about it.  Women have the greatest capacity to effect change in their environments and these 'sexy' trends are systematically destroying that ability.  I wish I had the power to get this video to more than one or two women.

I am grateful to my religion for standing up to the objectification of women.  We may not hold the same positions as men, but I believe it is in large part because the positions we do have are so much more important.  As wives, mothers, sisters, friends, we are the thread that binds lives and families together and without that you have no society.  This is not to say the role cannot be reversed, some men are better suited to staying home and some women better suited to being the proverbial breadwinner.  But still a healthy strong family is created with at least one nurturer, best with two who work together.

Going to stop here to keep from rambling...

Today I am making curry for dinner, with pork and Brussels sprouts. I am out of Vermont Curry which is our favorite but I have some other brands of Japanese curry mixes I am going to try.  I am going to stuff it full of veggies too.

Sunday and Kefir

Sunday was a busy day.  We picked up a commercial upright freezer from a friend who is moving cross country for just $75, I am so excited to have it!  My freezer that is paired with my fridge is always packed tight and it is like playing jenga to get anything out.

Then we went to church (late) and ate meatball oven dinner when we got home.  Meatball oven dinner has been a family favorite since I was a kid, since my mom was a kid.  And after 8 years of cooking for my hubby I finally made it for him and he loved it.  So I am happy.

Had a fun conversation with my fellow ward librarian Karen yesterday.  We talked about kefir which I mentioned on Saturday.  Here is a Wikipedia article that gives you the basic idea of what it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefir  Most common is milk kefir, but I use water kefir because it is less maintenance for me.

So my method is this:  I keep 2 pitchers on my counter, one for the kefir and one for tap water set out for the chlorine to evaporate from.  This is important as the chlorine can kill the kefir grains.

Every couple days I get my jug and my Plastic Mesh Strainer (metal is hard on the grains, use glass, plastic and wood when you can), then I strain the grains out as I am pouring the water into my jug.

I then Rinse the gains a little with the prepared water, fill the culturing bottle with about 1 quart of the prepped water and add 1/4 c. organic sugar and a teaspoon of molasses stirring with a wooden spoon.

Then the coffee filter gets elastic-ed over the lid to keep dust and things out.  I set it in a shady place or in a cupboard then add some flavor to the finished kefir and put it in the fridge because I like it cold.

This site has a lot of info on Kefirs as well as sells the grains:  http://www.culturesforhealth.com/kefir

Why do I go to the trouble?  Because I have a bad case of Irritable Bowel Syndrome and nothing I had tried previously helped it.  My sister recommended kefir and I tried it.  For the first time since I was a child I was able to go days, weeks, and even months without and attack as long as I was drinking the kefir.  I will never go back to those painful days.

Off to figure out what to make for dinner and then to clean and organize my new freezer.  ;D

Saturday Slump and Probiotics

So I feel awful today.  Just finishing a monthly ritual (aka my period) that has kicked my butt.  I am so worn out I have been on the comp playing games and researching things and doing nothing difficult all day.

I was minding my own business when I stumbled upon this video about "the American Parasite", it is long but very informative about candida, sugar, probiotics, and their effects in your body.  It is a pretty good and relatively well researched and a well documented video.
http://keybiotics.com/video_toon17a.php

And it is kind of cool to watch the drawing, so I kept watching.  And wow, just wow.  Not only has it described my physical symptoms, but it attributes them to candida, something I have suspected, and in my personal health experiments, blame for many of my ailments.

I was very skeptical as I watched until I realized just how accurate it was matching my physical symptoms (fatigue, headaches, IBS, depression, and many more) to what I have researched as a possible cause of my health issues.  I am not saying that this is the one answer, as there is rarely just one thing that causes the engine that is our bodies to malfunction.  I am just finding out that this is a big one, and one that we can deal with.

So much of our health is what we take into our bodies, and the over processed crap and high sugars we are accustomed to eating is killing us.  I have not cut sugars completely from my diet, but I have found that I am much healthier and happier when I steer away from them drastically.  Also with preservatives, I make my own sauces and soup mixes instead of using canned soups.  It is just a little step I take everyday to manage my health and the health of my family which is my full time job. (working vs stay at home wives is an entirely different topic for another time)

Now everyone has a system they want to sell you to deal with this (in this case a probiotic pill).  You don't need it, you just need some knowledge (unless of course you have the money and want a faster solution).  Look what is in your food, become familiar with what names sugar and  preservatives hide as, and be willing to change your habits.  Learn about your good gut bacteria and get your probiotics (Kefir is awesome!).

I am not even going to start on the probiotic soapbox today (I Love my water Kefir!).  I think I will save that for Monday as Sunday is a day for a different kind of study.

Do watch the video.  If nothing else it will get you thinking about ways to feel better.  And that is the first step.