On Thanksgiving Day we went to the movies. We started going last year and it seemed like a nice tradition to keep up this year, as we once again found ourselves in Arkansas for the holiday.
Frozen II had come out the week before. I hadn’t really planned to see it. I mean, yes, I had seen the first one, but my kids are getting older and I could easily wait for it to come out on DVD or even Disney+. No hurry.
Until the day it opened, that is. Because on that day, it seemed like everyone I know went to see it. Then half of them messaged me to tell me I had to go see it.
Spoiler alert, if you’re like one of the twelve Americans who haven’t yet seen this movie.
So, 45 minutes or so into the movie one of the characters tells another to “Do the next right thing.” That seemed to really get everyone in the feels. Big time.
Half an hour later, when she is at her darkest moment, Anna sings this:
I’ve seen dark before
Do the Next Right Thing, Frozen II
But not like this
This is cold
This is empty
This is numb
The life I knew is over
The lights are out
Hello, darkness
I’m ready to succumb
Yeah, I know. It’s like it was written for us. But there’s more.
But you’ve gone to a place I cannot find
This grief has a gravity
It pulls me down
But a tiny voice whispers in my mind
“You are lost, hope is gone
But you must go on
And do the next right thing”
Seriously.
It was a good thing we’d been warned. I brought Kleenex for all of us.
So I’ll walk through this night
Stumbling blindly toward the light
And do the next right thing
And with the dawn, what comes then
When it’s clear that everything will never be the same again?
Then I’ll make the choice
To hear that voice
And do the next right thing
And that, my friends, is the song that has been running through my head for the past two weeks. The one that reminds me to keep getting up and taking the next step, even though I know nothing will ever be the same.
