The Opposite of Shallow
On the way to a movie with my daughter (8 years old), I find myself in an interesting discussion. We’re listening to the soundtrack of the musical Wicked, one of her favorites having seen the show and performed a number as part of her most recent stagecraft class. She wonders why it’s funny when Elphaba, having been described as “exceedingly unusual and peculiar and all together nearly impossible to describe,” classifies her roommate Glinda as merely “Blonde.” In the best way I can, we talk about stereotypes, what they are, what they mean and why we don’t prescribe to them in our daily lives (though they can make for good literature).
Prior to leaving the house, I read a brief review of our movie, Where The Wild Things Are. In sum, it says the movie is clever, “but not very much happens.” We settle in and off it goes. An adaptation of the classic Maurice Sendak book, the film shows frustrated, emotional Max charging through his house, being ignored by his sister and acting out for his mother before running out of the house, finding a boat and sailing away to the island of the wild things. Director Spike Jonze says he decided to depict the monsters as emotions. On the surface perhaps not much happens, yet we are invited to go deeper.
The film is an amazing depiction of youth. The emotions bared by tiny Max on an intimate level are echoed on a grand scale by the monsters. It is tender, telling, emotional, and scary – a meditation on the perils and joys of being a child.
We need to begin to value the joys of depth. Nothing in this world is as it seems on the surface. When exposed to art (high or low), if you consider the work to be simple and basic please remember layers of decision making were required to agree that it should appear simple and basic. There’s depth in the process, even if it isn’t in the result. Every moment, wink, piece of clothing, prop and watchband is put there on purpose.
Every public move, every political decision, most every dollar spent, every moral, ethic, establishment, premise, promise, desire and promotion – especially promotion – is multi-layered, examined, considered, tested and rendered by a team. There are 300 million people in the United States, seven trillion in the world. To move forward on any venture with an aspiration of reaching, pleasing or understanding them all is a fool’s errand. The diversity of our world is staggering. Find the niche you can serve and serve them well – aspiring for mass fame and fortune is the dream of a bygone era.
The exception that proves the rule is love. There are no facets, layers or degrees. If you believe there are, you are doing it wrong. Your relationships may vary – all the while you either love or you don’t. That’s not shallow – that’s deep.
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