Here’s to the Ones who Dream:
I just watched La La Land for the second time in theaters. La La Land, starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, is one of those movies that you can just watch over and over again. I think it can be compared to classic musicals like Singing in the Rain, and Meet Me in St. Louis. I returned home with the catchy songs still stuck in my head (check out the soundtrack). I was inspired to play the Smule Magic Piano app on my phone, because I wanted to play the piano like Ryan Gosling’s character, Sebastian does. I played songs like “City of Stars” and “Another Day of Sun” on the app. All the songs really resonate with me.
I’d been thinking a lot about this movie since I last saw it (which had only been a few hours ago, but still). Without giving too much of the movie away (WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!), the movie is about an aspiring actress named Mia (Emma Stone) and a jazz-loving pianist named Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and their story of how they met and how they both pursued their dreams. The movie has a bitter-sweet ending and I actually hated the ending the first time I saw it. It didn’t seem right to me, at least, not initially. I thought to myself, “No, that’s not how this is supposed to end!”
After I saw it again tonight, I developed a deeper appreciation for the movie as a whole. Although it does not have the happy ending I was expecting, the movie demonstrates the kind of sacrificial love that a man and a woman can have for each other. The kind in which they let each other go so that both can pursue their dreams and fulfill their destinies.
I am one hard-core hopeless romantic. So when two people have a connection like these characters did, it saddens me when they’re not together. But real life is messy and relationships do not always end the way we want them to. Sometimes, people start relationships too soon, and the timing is off. Other times, people’s lives get too busy for romance.
Mia and Sebastian probably assumed that they would end up being together. But then life happened, and they cared for each other so much that they each let the other pursue their dreams. Sacrificial love is a deep kind of love. Sometimes, we care for someone so much that we have to let them go and live their lives and do what is best for them, and we have to step back in order for them to do that.
I often find myself in my own La La Land similar to the daydream Mia has at the end of the movie in which she imagines the future she and Sebastian might have had if things had worked out differently. When I’m in La La Land, I wonder who I’m going to marry (and if I’ve met him yet), I dream of dancing the night away, I look back on past relationships and wonder if I was in the wrong for ending them, and I worry about the future and about whether or not I’m going to be a good teacher. Once I return from La La Land, I start missing what I once had (or thought I had), wondering if I ever fully appreciated it. Strangely enough, I also start missing the things I have never had. I always dread the pity party that awaits me in my lonely room upon my return from La La Land.
The only One who can rescue me from my own La La Land and relieve me from the darkness inside me is Jesus Christ, my Savior, who died for all of our sins on the cross and rose from the dead, beating death once and for all. He bore the death we deserved so that we might live. Dear friends, when you, too, find yourself in La La Land, remember that the Creator of the universe came to earth in flesh to save you from your sins so that you don’t have to worry about whether or not you said or did the right things in the past. No one except for God knows what the future holds. So follow the dreams that God has placed in your life. After all, there’s always another day of sun.