Tangled Talents
"When will my life begin?"
Disney's version of Rapunzel in the film Tangled was struggling with this question. Locked up by the evil mother that pretended to "keep her safe" from the world, when
really all she wanted was to keep the healing powers of Rapunzel to herself, Rapunzel got creative.
As I frequently work for a kids entertainment company, I had to learn the song "When will my life begin". Going over and over the lyrics, I felt the song took on a new meaning.
Even though the film is not about releasing Rapunzel's creative talents, but releasing her from her tower and bringing her back to her family, I felt like this song and that part of the story was like a parable about a lot of people that are talented but are stuck in their "tower".
What would you do if you were locked up in a tower? I think Rapunzel did the right thing - Besides cleaning her tower every morning, she read, painted, played guitar, knitted, did puzzles, played darts and chess, baked, made paper mache, danced ballet, did pottery, made candles, sketched, sew dresses and of course she sang!!! Look at the beautiful space she created!
That's a lot of creative things to do in a day! We might not have as much time as our lovely Rapunzel, but we all do have time!
Maybe we need to build ourselves a tower and lock ourselves up in it to become creative, educate ourselves, learn new skills and nurture our talents with any distractions of the outside world. Rapunzel could have easily just been depressed on her bed, crying herself to sleep every night and letting the tower be a place of hell for her. Luckily, Disney had a better idea and created this wonderful princess that has drive, that is passionate and is still overwhelmingly loving yet strong and corageous even though she was trapped in her own world.
Exactly this can become a danger for us, that whilst we need our tower time and space to be creative, we stay in there and never let our light shine to the world.
The evil mother disguised as the one that wanted to protect Rapunzel, is like our fears to get out of the tower. When all we have known is our own creative space it can be daunting stepping out into the world and getting our talents seen!
Unfortunately, unlike in fairytales, there is not always going to be a Flynn Rider aka Prince Charming that will save us from the tower. We have to break out ourselves and take the risk that not everyone might agree with us. Our fears might be haunting us like the evil mother. But remember, all the evil mother wanted was to keep Rapunzels talents for her own selfish use.
I want to remind myself of this story - to be in the tower and create and learn but then also to break out and show my passions to the world.
This motivated me this weekend to not just be in my tower and play piano out of my own pure passion for it but to record it and let the rest of this magical kingdom (the www!) hear it:
To let the light shine even more, if you're a producer and have an idea to collaborate on this piece feel free to get in touch!
Your life is NOW, it won't ever "begin"! The Journey IS the destination!
I'd love to hear your comments/struggles/creative ideas on here!
