Thursday, April 2, 2009

chapter 2: where the wild things are . . .


so god bear with me, cos i'm going to get deep with you for a second.   i bet you never thought about "where the wild things are" as like a philosophy for life here on earth and your master plan. but it is.   i'll share in a bit, cos this thought just occurred to me, but first let me share my initial thoughts about "where the wild things are."

so last year i read an article about spike jonze's movie version of maurice sendak's "where the wild things are" and was oh so excited for it.  i will admit as a child, i wasn't a big fan of the story but enjoyed the pictures.  it's odd, cos i can picture in my head, where the book is located in the children's section of the delano library.  anyway, the article inspired me not only to purchase the book for my brother for christmas, but also to youtube the trailer.  however, the trailer wasn't available but i did find this reading of the book ala reading rainbow style.  and maybe it was the stress of work cos i doubt i was pms-ing, but watching the reading of the story made me cry.  why?  because i realized right then and there how much i missed "home."

"where the wild things are" is a coming of age story and therefore very relevant to my life as a twentysomething.   to refresh your memory, the story is the tale of  a boy named max (in a wolf costume .  .  . note to god:  please bless me with a child that will want to randomly wear costumes to school.) who is sent to his room for bad behavior.  a forest then grows in it and goes to the land of wild things and becomes their king.  right now, i'm with the wild things.  with the wild things max lived as he wanted to and made his own rules without regards to anyone else.  and that is how it is for me, right now i have no real responsibilities in terms of family and am simply living for my own enjoyment.  it's my fling with selfishness because this is the one time in my life that i am my main priority.  i have no husband or children to worry about, and can be this carefree.  

however, just like max, there is a point when you suddenly miss home and are able to return and find your dinner still warm.  that point in the story is what made me cry because i do feel that regardless of what i do in life right now, i can always return home and the love there will not have wavered or change.  and regardless of my age, whenever los angeles gets overwhelming for me in terms of life, i know i can go home and just feel loved.

also i feel in my version of "where the wild things are" "home" is my future home/family.  it's kinda like in garden state, how zach braff's character explains how he gets homesick and won't get rid of the feeling until he creates his own home with his own family.

so this is where i am.  ready for that moment to tell me to settle down.  not saying that i'm not enjoying life right now.  but sometimes it would be nice to be able to fast foward and know that you will turn out decent.  that you'll have that family and career and not end up some 40 something unmarried and without kids.  though carrie bradshaw and the gang have made it appear glamourous. and i would not mind that lifestyle either esp if it comes with a mr. big.

so these are my thoughts.  and god if you were curious, how does this work to your master plan. well max is a representation of humans and where the wild things are is earth.  and we live our time down here.  then head back home for our soup aka heaven.  where you still accept us and forgive us for our sins aka our time roaring our terrible roars and gnarshing our terrible teeth and rolling our terrible eyes.

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