wild!

collection of thoughts after seeing where the wild things are. combined with thoughts from 'christ plays in ten thousand places' and 'the creative habit' ...

"everything that happens in a day is a transaction between the external world and my internal world. everything is raw material. everything is relevant. everything is usable. everything feeds into my creativity. but without proper preparation, i cannot see it, retain it, use it."

where the wild things are encapsulates all those childhood feelings of wonder and angst. and emotions that you don't quite know how to deal with yet so you wind up on top of the kitchen table screaming at your mother. all those beautiful, imaginative, intense feelings that we've squandered and labeled as maturity. as we get older, we develop competence and gain mastery over ourselves and our environment. we become so absorbed in what were doing, where were going; that god's work, god's creation is forgotten or marginalized. but our minds and imagination are inherently unrestricted and boundless from birth and we’re designed to begin participating in god's creation work.

something in max told him that celebration of creation and of each other was the first step to eliminating sadness, and so a wild rumpus began. a child knew instinctively. a child also innately knew that establishing a common goal for the monsters would bring them together. their community served together and for each other. there are things that are so carnal, so instinctive, so intrinsically life-giving that it can only point to the way things were meant to be. max unhesitatingly and barbarously discerns that.

but max is no savior. he can't live up to it. his ability to control starts to crumble after the early apogee of escaping there. the depravity of humans is beautifully and masterfully revealed.

everything in the movie, like a child, is raw, unfiltered, risky, and unabashedly nonsensical. from the dialogue to the music, it doesn't owe anything to anyone, it's free.

jesus said we can only enter the kingdom "as a little child." we rarely take the time to detach ourselves from the world's way of doing things and from our own compulsions. we take things into our own hands. we are not free to see and respond to who god is and what he is doing. to attend. to adore. as a little child.