December 6, 2013

ISIQ-0328

“Follow the light.”

Today’s quote is courtesy of the animated film “The Croods” – my Fun Family Friday viewing with Rilien and Bel. (Indrani is at a mates’ house.)

Classic film. It touches on themes of family, parenting, belief, dreams, and creativity. It has plenty of laughs, plenty of tense, action-packed moments, and the odd tear-jerking scene. I give it about 4.5 rubber chickens, out of a possible 5. But, ahem. Today’s quote.

Take a look at the list of this film’s themes for a second:

Family. Parenting. Belief. Dreams. Creativity.

Nothing lightweight there. In fact, to me, they represent some of the biggest “chunks” of what I believe constitute living a great life.

To me, family is paramount. Family are the ones who will love you no matter what. They are also the ones who will drive you crazy like nobody’s business, but hey, unconditional love comes with a small price to pay. I prioritise my family above all else.

Parenting is the single hardest job I have ever had, bar none. I have learned more about myself, my values and belief systems, and my views on the world, from parenting, than from any other source. It is also simultaneously the most rewarding job I have ever had, because my reward is to see two little lives that I helped create going forth to change and disrupt the world in positive ways.

Belief. This is a potentially tricky one… Religious folks often consider belief/faith to be all about their divine deity, mostly to the exclusion of all else. I am not religious, but I am a believer. In myself. If nothing else, by believing in ourselves, we give ourselves a little extra strength and grit to get done what we most want to accomplish.

If none of us dreamed… Can you even imagine the kind of world we would live in? Imagine if Walt Disney didn’t have dreams. Or J.R.R. Tolkein. Or, perhaps most appropriately, Martin Luther King Jr. No Disneyland, no Lord of the Rings, no “I Have A Dream” speech. Dreams are critical.

Creativity is right up there as one of the most important skills we possess as humans. Coming up with new, innovative ways to solve problems. It is, perhaps, the most important skill we possess in today’s economy, as our old industrial structures fall apart before our eyes. Find problems, solve them, become someone of value.

Simple? Yeah. As always, not always easy, but very simple.

So there are two messages I want to bring home:

1) Watch The Croods, and look deeper than you might ordinarily when watching a kids animated film.

2) Follow the light. Your own light: the one that shines from inside you. Follow it wherever it takes you.

Have a fabulous Saturday, wherever you are in the world. I love and appreciate you more than you know.

With love,
Israel. xo

P.S. You’re probably aware that I am a Family Portrait photographer. Our family celebrates Xmas – despite our non-religious flavour – so we’re having a “12 Days of Xmas” celebration via email and on the blog, starting Tuesday next week and running until Saturday 21 December (our last day in the office for the year). Since you’ve been kind enough to read my IQs and my writing for a while now, I want to give back a little. Stay tuned, cos I’ll be copying you in to all the emails. It means you’ll get two emails per day from me for 12 days, but then the schedule will return to normal. Stay with me, and make sure you check out the special posts, OK? Deal. Stay tuned. There is some AWESOME stuff coming up from Tuesday.

 

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