My Stuff is Being Read? Yikes.

I've got mixed feelings about being here. Work in progress.

[michaelscottwithmanners-blog]

Presence

She was terribly afraid he would not be happy once she left. 

There had been many funerals they had attended - friends and family passing had become expected - but he was bitter and tired at the fact he had to attend one she was silent at, and any future ones at which she wouldn’t be present. As his joints grew stiff and mind wandered endlessly at his spent youth, she would badger him to be more active. Life was lived every day unless it wasn’t, she’d say. He didn’t understand how she could stand to grow old, but at night her eyes twinkled back the reflection of countless stars and her smile made him forget about the darkness. 

With his gruff chuckle, he continues to wake up every day. He still carries her shoes on walks; she would have wanted her toes in the crumbling earth, stepping through rocks that have been tumbled through years of storms and waves to be made soft. She had written him a note that last morning, a reminder to carry with him always. She never saw the way it straightened his shoulders, lifted his chin, and brightened his eyes. Seeing as his birthday was tomorrow, and it had been a year since she’d last kissed him, he decided he had kept her love and wisdom to himself long enough. On his next trip to the waves he took with him the note… and a bottle.

You are loved.

[michaelscottwithmanners-blog]

Moana: The Untold Sacrifice

SPOILER ALERT.

Let’s talk about Moana’s grandmother, Tala. The mother of the chief. The self-proclaimed “village crazy lady.” She is a true hero of Moto Nui. 

Let’s start by paying attention to the age of the population on Moto Nui. 

There are few elderly people. There are a few with greying hair, but they are still fit and capable and contributing to society. 

This doesn’t surprise me with how “off the land” the society is; I presume they have no medicine or great hygiene and childbirth is dangerous/deadly and therefore lifespans aren’t that great. (Note: I slept through my Anthropology 101 class so don’t quote me on this.) Why is Tala one of the few with white hair and a cane and yet dances with the water? At first glance it’s not that important. Here’s my theory: 

At the beginning of the movie, Tala (an early grandmother and therefore probably at the end of the typical islander lifespan) teaches the children and Moana about monsters and the prophecy of the returning of the heart of Te Fiti. Moana then goes to the ocean, proves her selflessness, and then receives the heart. But she’s an infant and is quickly swept up by her father. Meanwhile, we are to assume the ocean took the heart back. But two growing-up songs later, we find out later Tala had been keeping it safe all along. Tala offers the heart to Moana. 

The heart. The heart of Te Fiti. The heart of the first living island. The stone stolen by Maui so the humans could create life itself. 

Tala. Had. The. Heart. She lived beyond the normal lifespan of any islander. Who knows how long she could live for with that stone. She could be immortal. 

The following events prove it. She offers the stone to its rightful bearer, the person who was destined to take it to Maui and return it, thus saving her people and the whole world. As soon as Moana takes the stone, Tala turns to the ocean and sighs. SHE KNOWS. She knows she just gave up her own life, her own immortality, to save her own people. Not five minutes later, Tala is breathing her last breath and using it to urge Moana further down her destined path. 

Tala is a martyr and hero of Moto Nui.