Pixar is Following Me

While watching Inside Out last night, I was reminded that

Pixar is following me.

Get out of my head!

In 2009, I moved to the Bay Area of California and learned about risk.

I learned that playing it safe wasn’t always the best option, and that adventure wasn’t to be feared.  I began to learn that life often doesn’t happen as we had planned, but there is still much pleasure in this world if we simply open our eyes to what is in front of us.

In 2009, Pixar released UP, whose tagline is "Adventure is Out There”, and whose themes include unexpected change in life plans and finding joy in what is still around us.

In 2010, I was preparing for my transition from my life in California to my soon to be new life in Illinois. It was time to prepare for the unknown by putting away the old things and embracing new opportunities.

In 2010, Pixar released Toy Story 3, about a boy going off to college and the journey that he (and his sentient toys) take as they prepare to face the unknown by putting away the things of the past.

In 2015, I served as a chaplain at a retirement home. I was faced with the reality of loss and of death on a nearly daily basis. Through this experience I was forced to explore the emotions I had yet to encounter surrounding the death of my father, when I was twelve. The short version is that I learned that all emotions have value and none should be suppressed or avoided.

In 2015, Pixar released Inside Out, a brightly colored children’s film that argues for the value and inclusion of all emotions in a balanced and heathy person.

What is truly bizarre is that in 2012, I took a trip to Scotland with my mother and she turned into a bear for three days.

 --Serving Him alongside all of you, just from further away
--Jesse Letourneau