“FROZEN II” AND MY ACHE FOR GLORY: PART TWO
“I have always been so different, normal rules did not apply. Is this the Day? Are you the way? I finally find out why?”
It’s a powerful revelation. After journeying “into the unknown”, facing her fears and taming the wild spirits of wind, fire, and water (earth comes later with the help of her sister, Princess Anna), Queen Elsa of Arendelle has finally reached the culmination of her search: an icy cavern hiding the source of the mysterious Voice she has left her kingdom to follow. As she plunges deeper and deeper into the frozen temple, she begins to sing a hauntingly gorgeous ballad entitled “Show Yourself” appealing to the Voice (the “fifth spirit”) to finally materialize and reveal its identity…
“Every inch of me is trembling but not from the cold | Something is familiar, like a dream I can reach but not quite hold | I can sense you there, like a friend I’ve always known | I’m arriving and it feels like I am home…”
As so often happens, Elsa finds it easiest to bear her soul through a melody…
“I have always been a fortress: cold secrets deep inside | You have secrets, too, but you don’t have to hide…
Show yourself | I’m dying to meet you | Show yourself | It’s your turn | Are you the one I’ve been looking for all of my life? | Show yourself! | I’m ready to learn…”
It’s a plea. A hope. An ache for glory set to music. And it intensifies as her expectancy grows.
“I’ve never felt so certain; all my life I’ve been torn | But I’m here for a reason: could it be the reason I was born? | I have always been so different, normal rules did not apply | Is this the Day? Are you the way I finally find out why?…”
“Is this the day? Are you the way I finally find out why?”
How many times has a similar question rung through the heart of every human? In my last post, I poured forth how I believe we are all aching for glory: for something or someone to define us, show us who we are and who we can be, and catch us up into a reality both bigger than we are and completely satisfying in the smallest inch of our beings.
Glory: in its truest, purest sense.
And as the song of the beautiful Ice Queen builds in momentum we can sense she is drawing close to that very thing.
“Show yourself! | I’m no longer trembling! | Here I am | I’ve come so far |You are the answer I’ve waited for all of my life! | Oh, show yourself! | Let me see who you are…”
Revelation: that’s the key. Revelation of glory. She must have it. I must have it. We must have it. Elsa is on to something and if we’re ever going to rise above the mediocrity of the world around us, if we’re ever going to break out of the endless cycle of monotony and fear trapping most of humanity, if we’re ever going to find our hope of glory, we better awaken the same hunger within our own hearts. This is why with every step she takes and every note she sings I feel my soul taking flight…
Elsa’s search is my search. Our search.
But what does she find?
“Come to me now | Open your door | Don’t make me wait one moment more…”
It’s a beautiful chant, honest and fearless, not at all unlike the psalms of King David in the Bible and one I would personally love to sing on a Sunday service at church (if I had Elsa’s pipes, that is)…until another voice joins in, accompanied by a full-on choir.
“Where the northwind meets the sea | There’s a river full of memory | Come my Darling, homeward bound…”
It is Elsa’s deceased mother, appearing in a vision on the glacial wall as her overjoyed daughter exclaims:
“I am found!”
The moment thunders with emotion…and it is in this moment that Elsa finally discovers the answer she has been searching for, the climax of her quest. As her mother sings over her Elsa joins along, their angelic sounding voices fusing in powerful harmony:
“Show yourself! | Step into your power! | Grow yourself | Into something new| You are the one you’ve been waiting for|( All of my life) All of your life | Oh, show yourself! You! Ah-Ah-Ah-Ah…!”
“You are the one you’ve been waiting for all of your life.”
Elsa’s search for glory leads her to the discovery that she is actually the answer to all of her questions. All of her longings. All of her hunger and thirsting and aching for more. In the end, Elsa is the answer to Elsa’s need and, ultimately, everyone else’s for it turns out that she is actually the “fifth element/spirit” who becomes a bridge between the physical world and the spirit world, magically transforming into a glorious goddess and (SPOILER ALERT) riding in on her watery-spirit horse to save the day. Her destiny is unlocked when she realizes the glory lies within herself…and nowhere else. It was inside of her all along. Apparently, all she needed was a little self-love and encouragement from her dead parent to bring it out.
Really?
All that aching and searching and struggling and triumph for…“to thine own self be true”?
(Elsa could have just read her Shakespeare and saved herself and everyone else, including us, a whole lot of trouble!)
And is that really the answer, anyway? Can “self-love” truly satisfy the ache of the human soul? Can it satisfy My soul?
In a word: no.
To me, the great tragedy of Frozen II (especially considering how much I truly do like and identify with the character of Elsa) is it builds up an incredible thirst and hope of glory in our hearts only to lead to a well that’s been drained out, sucked up, and filled in for years. Centuries. That, truthfully, has been dry as a bone since the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden. As appealing and overused as the “love yourself/be yourself/show yourself” message is, it clearly does not answer life’s problems or solve the human condition: if it did, we would have reached Utopia long ago. And in my own personal experience I have found the more I glorify myself the more wretched I truly become. In spite of the “feel good” message of Frozen II, modern psychology, or practically every talk show host in America, the hard fact simply remains:
We cannot save ourselves.
The thirst is real. The search is true. But the answer of “You are the one you’ve been searching for” is completely false.
But that’s a really good thing.
Because the actual Answer is so much better, so much grander, so much more glorious than our wildest imaginations ever dared hope for.
Because there is another Voice that calls:
“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink…[and] out of his heart will flow rivers of living water!”
Prepare for another quest…because, in my next blog post, we’re following that Voice!
EMBRACE ADVENTURE,
CHRISTIS JOY
