David Michael Bruno

Pixar and Hollywood - Night and Day

It’s as if Hollywood is afraid of people. Afraid that the people who go to see movies might actually be imbeciles. There are not that many stories to tell. There are love stories or unrequited love stories. There are coming of age stories or stories about people who never grow up. There are good guy or bad guy stories. And there are a few more kinds of stories. They get told over and over again but in new ways. Even though we’ve all read and watched and even ourselves lived most of these stories multiple times, still we can get all choked up when we experience the same old story again but with a new twist.

Yet makers of money are worried that spenders of money don’t want to spend money on something unfamiliar, because imbeciles prioritize comfort above all other stimuli. So Hollywood has mostly been comfortably remaking films for the past couple decades. Remaking films. Not retelling stories. The remakes have more special effects and, over the last couple of years, lots of 3D because that’s the difference between the old film and the new film: more realistic looking computer animated animals and more pieces of blown up things coming closer to the imbeciles’ heads.

While all this has been going on Pixar has been, most of the time, retelling stories. Pixar has been pushing the limits of Hollywood propriety by having the nerve to treat audiences -- even audiences of children! -- like they aren’t imbeciles.

The difference between Pixar and mainstream Hollywood is like night and day. Or, is that Day & Night? Sheesh! Who knows what message to tolerate anymore.

Stay Focused Amidst the Blur, Then Clean

No this isn’t another post about mountain climbing - continuing on your way even when clouds roll in, or something like that. This is all about the end-of-the-school-year crazies!

Our children are all done. Two have graduated to new schools, one onto elementary school and the other onto junior high. (Yikes!) All three of our girls have had a wonderful year. Each has worked hard to learn new academic and social stratagems. All are growing up just right.

But ooooh you must know that "just right" doesn’t mean quiet and neat, especially not at the end of the school year. I’ve been employing some impressive deep breathing techniques the last couple of nights. Wow these kids are excited and loud. And how is it that a clean and empty space in a house can get filled so quickly with kid stuff? And why is it that if there are three clean and empty spaces children must evenly distribute their kid stuff to all three? Why can’t they just pick one spot to heap their crap upon?

The end of the school year is a blur. The years of our lives are filled with blurry weeks, even months. I’ve come to believe that the best thing to do during the blurry times is to stay resolute. These are not the normative moments in life. These are the crazies. There’s no need to live all of life in the crazies. There’s no need to respond to the crazies as if the crazies are everyday life.

That’s my strategy. Walk right through the blur of the crazies as if I have no intention to get vertigo. A few steps later, a few days later, life will clarify. And when life clears up, then it will be time to kick some clean up butt!

Consumer Questions For Kids

So a few times over the last year my daughters have made comments to me or to Leanne about consumerism. It might happen like this. Leanne’s with them in a toy store and one of them is going to spend some of her allowance, then pauses to ask, “What do you think Daddy will say?”

Normally it makes me chuckle to hear of these incidents. Depending on my mood, it can also make me feel a little sad. “They don’t think I’m a grumpy miser, do they?”

Yet, hopefully without sounding arrogant, I think that our hearts are displayed by our words and actions, and I believe that my daughters know by what I say to them and how I treat them that I’m no Scrooge. So I don’t worry that they are going to need therapy, at least not for this particular family-of-origin issue.

In fact, I got to thinking. Their occasional reaction to buying might actually be something of a positive sign. The “question” is out there. In our family, mindless consumerism isn’t swept under the rug. We question our consumer choices. Granted we sometimes buy stuff we shouldn’t. We get carried away. Make bad decisions. But there’s an openness to discuss consumerism. A conversation has been started and is available to pick up at any time.

I’m not sure if that’s a third or half of the battle. Maybe it’s 90% of it. I suspect it’s important. The ability for children to safely question what is considered normal. The excesses of American-style consumerism is considered normal in our culture. A certain level of thrift is considered normal in our home. I’m glad that our daughters can comfortably question both. But since consumerism has enormous influence over children these days, I’m especially happy our daughters are aware enough to question consumerism.

The Dizzying Safety Requirements for the Modern Child

Around the dinner table we take turns sharing about our day. Sometimes we do "Best and Worst," in which we say what the best thing and the worst thing about our day was. Sometimes we do "Thank you Jesus; help me Jesus," in which we say what thing we're thankful for and what thing we're sorely in need of help for in our day. Tonight we just said what we did for lunch.

Leanne and Bridget ate peanut butter and jelly.

Phoebe ate lunch with a handful of friends because her best friend, Sarah S (Phoebe also spends time with Sarah E and Sarah B), is on vacation. Then she ran to the red bars and did tricks, like sitting on the bar and dropping over it backwards, while chatting with some other girls.

Lucy, though, got busted by a "supervisor."

When I was eleven years old, we used to call supervisors, "yard duties." The mean ones we called, "yard dogs."

It doesn't sound like this supervisor was a mean one, but she certainly was a modern one. She came running over to my daughter and her friends because they were (make sure you're sitting down before you read this) spinning around to make themselves dizzy.

"Stop doing that. You might make yourself dizzy and fall down and hit your head," Lucy reported to us at the dinner table that the supervisor had told her crowd. Lucy added, and Phoebe confirmed, "That's the point."

Habits of High-Potential Kids

Just a quick post. A few times recently when it's been my turn, I've rushed through our meal-time prayer. Life is so busy. You know, "Good Lord, good meat, good food, let's eat. Amen." But then my kids jump in:

"And we pray for Palavi." (The little girl in India we support through World Vision.)

"And Burundi." (We support a village through Plant with Purpose.)

"And the people who don't have a house." (We've had rain in San Diego.)

"And that Marble doesn't die." (Marble is our beta fish who's on the brink.)

And now...Consumerism Conclusion: When we live the lifestyle of American-style consumerism, we develop habits of low potential. We get in the habit of getting more stuff. Do we really want our children to aspire to...shop at Best Buy?

It is encouraging to me that our children are starting to make high-potential habits their own habits. Sure, they've heard us pray a million times over the years. And some of their prayers simply mimic ours. But now they are starting to internalize those prayers and concerns. They are forming characters that care about others more than stuff. I love it!

It's worth considering what kinds of habits we teach and reinforce in our children. The best kind (I think) are the ones that are habits that help others. They are "high-potential" habits; that is, they are habits that can change the world by blessing other people.

P.S. for tired parents. Lest our family sound too idealistic, as I wrap up the post all the kids are whining and fighting. They're good kids, but kids nonetheless.