We are the Trolls: Unitarian Universalists in the movie "Frozen"

                Watching Disney’s latest, surprisingly progressive,  blockbuster movie “Frozen” I realized that the Trolls are Unitarian Universalists! Now stay with me for a moment and I’ll explain.

               Kristoff stumbles upon the trolls quite accidently when he is doing something else. So many Unitarian Universalists have done the same. We stumble onto this faith when we are doing something else. And finding our true home we have been adopted into this family as though we always belonged.

And since he belonged from childhood Kristoff knows what he is talking about when he refers to them as love experts shortly after he meets Anna, and when she is injured that is where he takes her. Unitarian Universalists try to raise our children to know they can come to us about anything. And we offer Our Whole Lives programs to teach children what it means to be a human and sexual being on a intellectual, emotional, and physical level. So of course one of our children could consider Unitarian Universalists love experts (and I mean not just a physical and sexual love but love that goes beyond the intimate).

                When Kristoff takes Anna and Olaf to see the trolls they don’t actually believe the trolls exist. How many times have you said you are a Unitarian Universalist only to have someone say: “What’s that?”

                The way to fix problems in people’s lives is with love. And not just intimate love (getting married) but they advocated a community based love.

Lyrics from “Fixer Upper” by Maia Wilson part of the “Frozen” soundtrack.

“Everyone's a bit of a fixer-upper,
That's what it's all about!

Father!

Sister!

Brother!

We need each other
To raise us up and round us out.
Everyone's a bit of a fixer-upper,”

            And we have a spiritual based recognition that no one is perfect but standing on the side of love is always the best option:

Lyrics from “Fixer Upper” by Maia Wilson part of the “Frozen” soundtrack.

“We're not sayin' you can change him,
'Cause people don't really change.
We're only saying that love's a force
That's powerful and strange.
People make bad choices if they're mad,
Or scared, or stressed.
Throw a little love their way.

Throw a little love their way.

And you'll bring out their best.”

            When Anna is first injured by the ice the troll king says heads are easy to convince. But to change hearts requires an act of true love. Love is where true change happens. How many sermons have you heard that could be boiled down to that very subject?

            And last but not least… the trolls are rocks. They don’t go anywhere against their will.

Dismissing the message

      I am Unitarian Universalist. I belong in this faith. I know this to my entire core. Yet there are ways I struggle with feeling welcome. I did not grow up in a household where the adults went to university. My parents divorced before I was a teen. We were fairly poor. So there are things I don't do well. Grammar is one of them. It has long been a challenge  I allowed myself to stop writing this blog out of fear of judgment. How often do we allow that to stop us?

       Communication is important. If I say or write something then and you don't understand what I'm trying to say we are not communicating. This is why grammar matters. It helps us transcend barriers created by written communication. When you and I talk face to face we communicate we are using many different levels of communication, including body language and tone of voice that helps get the point across. Grammar takes the place of all of that, but how often does it create barriers of its own.

         How often does it become a weapon we use against one another? I realized I was allowing it to be a weapon I used against myself. My fear that since my grammar is not perfect I couldn't communicate in this way was very real. How often does the culture we set up in our congregations become a  barrier to people being able to express the fullness of who they are in this faith?

        No one told me I couldn't blog because my grammar is not perfect. Yet I have heard so many little comments, assumptions about the intelligence and/or education of those with imperfect grammar that I stopped expressing myself so I could belong to this community I love. And in doing so I have robbed my community of my voice.

       We speak of a desire, that I believe exists, to be a diverse community, but when we create situations that make people feel ashamed for who we are; when we make it clear there is a "right way" to be Unitarian Universalist we are robbing our community of voices that could help us grow. There are identities that are made invisible in our communities. Every time we talk about helping the poor as though a poor person could not be among us, ever time we talk about people in ways that make someone feel like they are the other we are making them invisible.

       I will not allow my voice, my written voice, to be silent any longer. I will continue to work on my grammar because it is important to communicate as clearly as possible; but I will never be perfect, which is the best thing I have to offer this faith I love.