What Nessie learned

Nessie, sad to leave her home

by Andrea Powell, HPCCR Electronic Communications Manager

I took my daughter to see the new Winnie the Pooh movie last week.  Little did I know that I would come away from that experience with an idea for a blog.  But there you go.  Working for a hospice organization has made me think in ways that I didn’t used to. 

Anyway, I’m constantly amazed by the complex adult concepts that are explored in such cute ways in kids’ movies these days.   And while Winnie the Pooh was certainly a cute movie, the one I’m actually referring to is the “short” that came on before the main feature. 

For those of you who, unlike me, aren’t blackmailed or cajoled into seeing to every animated film that Disney or Pixar puts out, let me explain.  Oftentimes before the blockbuster animated films, they have a short film, a movie “appetizer” if you will.  These films, in my opinion, are sometimes better than their successors.  Adorable and short, they develop characters and a clever plot in mere minutes and manage to be hilarious at the same time.

The short film  before Winnie the Pooh was called “The Ballad of Nessie”.  It’s about — you guessed it –the Loch Ness Monster.  But it tells the story of how Nessie came to be in the Loch Ness and that’s the part of the story I found compelling.

See, Nessie was perfectly happy in her little pond until the land around it was commandeered by a man named MacFroogle, a Scottish real estate tycoon who wanted to develop a miniature golf course.  Nessie tried to stick it out, but she got so frustrated that she had to leave.  And she was very sad about leaving what was familiar to her.  But if she started to get emotional, her “friends” would tell her not to cry, saying, “Keep a stiff upper lip!  Chin up, now, pip-pip!”  So off she set, looking for a new home and finding obstacles at every turn.  And hearing the same line whenever she struggled or despaired, “Chin up, now, pip-pip!” 

Well, Nessie got to the point where she just lost it.  She started to cry, and she cried for hours.  Which turned into days and weeks.  Until one day she simply stopped.  And guess what?  She looked up to find that she had cried herself her very own loch, a new home born from her own tears and frustration.  But the movie said it best: “Nessie learned a good lesson on the bright, happy day, and it bears worth repeatin’, no matter what folks may say: Dinna be afraid to cry; it really is okay!  Sometimes it’s through our tears that we find a better way.”

Yep, sometimes we need to take our time and grieve our loss.  And that means it’s okay to ignore the well-meaning friends who tell us to keep our chin up.  We need to get through hard times in our own way and if that means crying a river, then the solution is actually very simple: just buy more Kleenex.  Or a boat.  The point is, it’s up to you.

Explore posts in the same categories: advocacy, awareness, education, grief, hospice, spiritual care

Tags: Disney, grief, HPCCR, Pixar, The Ballad of Nessie

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