Toy Story — it was the first of its kind. An imaginative world of framed, emotive illustration where innovation met heart. It captures the joy of bringing life to what is otherwise still. For children and adults alike — to infinity and beyond.
This post reflects on Toy Story, directed by John Lasseter and starring Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and Annie Potts.
Falling With Style
I implore you to think back to when you lived to imagine — when more of life was lived out of sight than within it. In what you had yet to discover, a world lay dormant, waiting to be held in your hands. And more than that, to be lived out in what you could not see.
In many ways, you are more alive when there is less to know — when living itself becomes an act of make-believe.
Set aside the figurines, and what remains? What do our perceptions reveal then? Reality begins to feel like something we are meant to step into, not just observe. And in the end, the coast is clear enough for us to realize:
This isn’t flying, it’s falling with style.
The Coast Is Clear
“It doesn’t matter how much we’re played with, what matters is that we’re here for Andy when he needed us. That what we’re made for right?”
~ Woody
For a time, I found myself talking to my toys. In many ways, I felt most alive with them. It was a fiction that stemmed a reality so steep it can only be known through imagination. And at that age, that was enough.
Looking back now, it’s plain to see: play can be as much living as life unveils itself to be.
For the sake of preservation, worry finds its place at the edges of this. It stands like a guardrail around what feels safe. I persist in trying to control what I cannot — grasping at things I was never meant to hold together.
As if staking out the present diminishes the surprise. As if, by doing so, I could somehow subvert any one thing not of my own design. But in that attempt, I fail — life has more gadgets than a Swiss Army knife.
Seeds of envy quickly rooted themselves in the seeing of anyone assured in what I failed to experience. I thought then If I knew more, if I saw more, then that at the very least made me feel better.
To my own justification any slight on my part tipped some unfavored scale back to its equilibrium.
But did I ever deserve what returned to me?
I Will Go Sailing No More
“I can’t help. I can’t help anyone.”
~ Woody
I think about the weight of my actions. In sum, I understand this: they are as much conscious as they are unconscious.
I wrestle with this most in hindsight.
Am I someone who chased vanity, selfish endeavors, haughty schemes, and misplaced intent? Or deprived so much of good, did I do what I can to find it?
Sailing waves of depression passed many years. I questioned whether my efforts meant anything at all. Who would believe in me? How could I help anyone?
My thoughts berated me. Nothing felt clear.
Though I did hold onto: the greatest evidence of good is the fact that I have tried for it, in the very way uniquely I can.
This was enough to keep going.
Falling With Style
“Look Buzz you’re flying” ~ Woody
“This isn’t flying, it’s falling with style” ~ Buzz
It isn’t worth giving up. It isn’t worth not trying.
I’ve done what I can. And in doing so, I’ve learned. Others may think I’m at it again, but passage prevailed a truth.
Experience and mercy gives way to understanding. And for me and all others, there is something like joy we may come to know.
Life is shaped in the wanting and the trying — embracing the assurance of belief.
The years turn, and still, we receive something from them.
To listen and laugh as we all know: you’ve got a friend in me.
To The Believer
Give yourself grace, and seek to make better from it. To be is to be, and so, far from perfect.
We wrestle with aims not to lose. Though you can always come back, that much you will do.
You may not be all that you think that you are, though you buzz lights greater than the stars.
It’s a bumpy ride, you’ll be knocked down again and again.
And still — how fortunate are we to play this life with friends.
Further Reflections
How To Train Your Dragon: All That is Uniquely You
Find what you had yet to build was all that separated you, from the heights you had yet to reach.
Perfect Days: Now is Now
What are you to make of the passing of your days? What is to keep you hanging on?
Project Hail Mary: We Can Go Home
Project Hail Mary is daringly hopeful as it is heartfully enchanting. Discover a man and his rock of a friend, and their journey to save their homes.
Credit: Script excerpts and select images from Toy Story (© Walt Disney Pictures) are included for purposes of reflection and thematic analysis.
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