If you follow my blog, you may have noticed that I am an art critic. I love great music and film. This past weekend I went to see Big Fish the musical at the Hale Theater in Salt Lake City for my birthday. It was delightful, with inflatable elephants dancing out of the entrance ways and a river running through the stage. The music was surprisingly entertaining and inspiring and enhanced the already magical journey of a father and son to redemption and reconciliation.
I have adored the movie Big Fish for about eight years. I think it is Tim Burton's best and most underrated work. It's like Tim Burton is one of my few kindred souls. I am mesmerized by the interweaving Odyssean mythical adventures of Edward Bloom, the restless and ridiculous gypsy soul traveling through life as a hero saving damsels in distress, experiencing the fullness of life, and making the biggest contribution possible in his big, wide world.
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| http://www.ecanadanow.com/pet-goldfish-growing-to-massive-sizes-in-canadian-waterways/95132/ |
"Kept in a small bowl, the goldfish will remain small with more space the fish will grow double, triple, or quadruple its size." Such describes Edward Bloom.
A week ago I attended a seminar by Gary Acevedo that has impacted me in a way that takes my Landmark Forum experience to an entirely new level. I discovered that I am what I love and that I love what I am. I am my favorite books, movies, and music. I am my greatest heroes: Joe March from Little Women, Alanis Morisette, Mindy Gledhill, Edward Bloom, Chris Nielsen from What Dreams May Come, Terry Warner of the Arbinger Institute, author Taylor Hartman, President Dieter Uchtdorf, Elder Jeffrey Holland, Enos, Esther, Ruth, Pahoran, Paul, and Jesus Christ.(See https://www.riseleadershipgroup.com/ for more information.)
There's just something about Edward Bloom that speaks to my highest self. I've discovered that I'm willing to get up and go wherever I feel that I am needed. I've received direct and indirect messages from others that I'm irresponsible, uncommitted, selfish, fearful, or running away from life. "I'll come back when I'm supposed to."
I've had a perpetual fascination with Ewan McGregor's characters Edward Bloom and Christian in Moulin Rouge because he plays the foolhardy, lovestruck adventurer seeking his quest with reckless abandon. Perhaps there is something I love about Edward Bloom that I love about myself.
"Here in the real world, you ain't got squat. You were a big fish in a small pond, but this here is the ocean and you're drowning."
If I would have listened to that nonsense, I would have been a goner years ago.
But God gave me a grit that got me to sing a solo for 2,000 people in a jazz choir in high school after being told that I barely made it into the choir, write and direct a high school play, attend BYU-Idaho after being rejected from all colleges I applied to including BYU-Idaho, run the first Salt Lake Marathon in 2004 despite debilitating depression, travel to Tanzania and the island of Zanzibar as a young adult, win a cupcake eating contest at an area church activity, write my own music and perform for hundreds of people, take five cross-country trips by myself, trek across the Arizonan desert 15 miles every week for six months, survive Washington, DC, traffic and cost of living twice, costar in an episode of a popular television show, learn Spanish and serve a mission for a year and a half, and move across the country six times in eight years. I've had conversations with the photographer for the Miss America Pageant, an intimate lunch date with Elder David Bednar and Susan Bednar, and I'm friends with talented musicians, motivational speakers, and artists from all around the country.
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| Choir |
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| Drama Club |
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| Salt Lake City Marathon |
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| Massai in Tanzania |
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| Missionary Work |
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| Holi Festival |
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| Canyoneering |
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| Humanitarian trip in Peru |
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| Skydiving |
I am astounded by the amazing life God has given me and I admit that I have many flaws and I am a mess-making machine. I am just like anyone else. I don't share any of this to brag, but to inspire others to live an Edward Bloomian life. It's not just a fantasy or a mythological tale. It has been my life and my reality since I was a child. I've been functioning on rotating bucket lists for ten years now and my bucket lists are now evolving from do-before-you-die fun times to make-a-difference items like helping out in a natural disaster, starting a coaching business, performing in a band and in a musical, getting married and raising children, sharing my message with the world, and causing the miraculous in others' lives. I am now in the world of making a difference for others and who knows what other surprises will be available to me that I haven't even planned yet?
Besides the fantastical nature of the film, I am the most awed by the story of the father and the son. The greatest story of all, of which I hope to fully partake, is the reconciliation and redemption of an angry and bitter son with his father, resulting in a deep appreciation for him and all that he meant to him in his life.
In the words of Gary Acevedo, "This is the love that can break your heart this much. This is the gift of life."
Who will be there at the end of the great adventure of your life? Whose lives will you touch?
