The Strange Overlaps Between Garp and Toy Story 3

Over the weekend, I finally saw Toy Story 3 at the cheapy theater in my neighborhood for a whopping $2.  Everyone had raved at the plot complexity, the cleverness of the toy references, and how it made them cry.  Strangely, my first reaction was a dismay at our trash system, and how things are thrown out that have no place in a landfill.  The infamous trash scene also reminded me of "The brave Little Toaster" and the animated, singing trash dump scene with the cars being smooshed into little boxes of metal.  I definitely enjoyed the movie, and it was absolutely worth my two dollars, but it almost made me sad about how much trash is in the landfill and how much we consume as people.   I guess there's always a little Wall-E residue in a pixar movie, and that was what I got from it at first.  Of course, there's a wonderful point about recycling your toys, even though one might want to keep things forever, there's more value in sharing, recycling, and reusing other's things, which I also like.  But the real clincher for me, was when Andy had packed up his room, and his mother started crying, and said "I just wish I could be with you forever."  Weird, how that got me the most, right?

I've just been rereading John Irving's famous epic 'The World According to Garp,' which is an interesting story about a man, his writing career, and his relationship with his mom and his children.  One of Garp's main paranoia's is towards his children-he runs after cars on the street to tell them to slow down, he rescues one of his sons from a sleepover with a sketchy mom, and he constantly fears for his children's lives.  Sadly, (or ironically) one of his sons dies in a mostly preventable car accident, and the other son loses an eye.  He is so caught up in his fears that he never looks at his own actions as causing danger for the kids, and he instead worries about the unknown, the "under toad" as it is referred to.  I can definitely identify with this fear and anxiety, as I'm often worried that my parents will have an accident or something like that.  As an only child, my parents are my only real family.  I'm not close with aunts or uncles or cousins, which has always slightly worried me, since my parents' eventual death will leave me alone in the world.  Garp's fears as a father are my fears as a child, and are Andy's mother's fears.  We can't control what happens in other's lives; we can't protect them forever, and we can't really tell them what to do.  I'm so happy that my parents have become much more healthy than they used to be-each of them has lost a significant amount of weight, and they eat a heavily raw plant and semi-vegan diet, which excites me, even though they would never call it by that label.  I still worry about them sometimes, but I know I need to let things unfold.  They can't be with me forever, and I can't be with them forever.  It's more about being present in the moments that you do have together, and letting people know you care.  That's the best I can do, at least.

listening to: the new arcade fire album