About Sadness

Hi, I'm Peter. I wanna share a story about sadness. Last night (actually it was weeks ago, I was unable to finish this story fast) I was on a date with my girlfriend. It's been a week since last we met. Works made us can't see each other, I am just glad we can have a date again. But, that's not the point I wanna share. We watched a movie. The title is Inside Out. We've been waiting for this movie to be released here, in Indonesia for two months. It's a great movie. There's no wasted time waiting for it. Actually this movie is the thing I wanna share.

[Warning: contains spoiler]

There are five characters in this movie who are emotions inside the headquarters of conscious mind of a lil girl, named Riley. They are joy, sadness, fear, disgust and anger. Joy is the one who takes most control of Riley's mind along her childhood. So, Riley's core memories are full of happiness. Those create a happy and cheerful character of Riley.

Then suddenly everything's changes when Riley moves to San Francisco after her father gets a new job. She faced a new life which is totally different from her old one. Led by Joy, her emotions try to keep things positive. Joy wants Riley to be happy so she becomes concerned when Sadness begins turning the happy memories to sad. However, on Riley's first day at her new school, Sadness accidentally causes Riley to cry in front of her class. That creates a new core memory that is sad. Joy attempts to dispose that new memory but accidentally that attempt causes Joy and Sadness sucked out of headquarters. They end up in the area of Riley's long-term memories. 

With the absence of Joy and Sadness, Fear, Disgust and Anger attempt to maintain Riley's emotional state. But instead, They make things become more complicated. What they do distance Riley from her parents, friends and hobbies. Then Anger inserts an idea to run away to Minnesota into Riley's mind, believing they can produce a new happy memories there. 

Meanwhile, Joy is trying to get back to headquarters to help Riley. Joy attempts to use a recall tube to return to headquarters it break and sending Joy into the memory dump. While despairingly looking through old memories, Joy discovers a sad memory that becomes happy when her parents and friends come to comfort her, causing her to realize Sadness's true importance: alerting others when Riley needs help.

That story happens to me and maybe to all of us. Usually when we faced a big problem, we run away or try to be cool and face it like a winner. We keep the sadness inside instead of letting it out. Which one is the right thing to do? I don't know. I am no psychologist. But I do know a story.

The story is about Joseph. Joseph had eleven brothers who hated him because his father loved him more than his brothers. He had a dream. When he told his brothers about it, they hated him even more because it was about him who will rule over them.

Then, his brothers sold him to to the Ishmaelites who took him to Egypt. Then the seven years of famine began. There was famine in all the other lands, but throughout the land of Egypt there was food. So, Joseph's brothers when down to buy grain from Egypt. When Joseph met his brothers, he was no longer able to control himself, so he cried out. He wept loudly.

Joseph was honest about him being hurt by his brothers. His honesty and willingness to let his emotion out enable him to forgive his brothers. So, it's about honesty then. Being honest about what we feel will bring joy in the end.