I meant to post this a while ago, but life got in the way.  (it tends to do that…)  Anyway,  Inception’s turned into quite the 2010 movie,  and has become the pop culture type of movie that infiltrates dinner conversations and will, no doubt, find it’s way into college classroom discussions.  In my mind, it’s all with good reason.   I walked away from Inception with a few initial thoughts.

1.  Wow, that was a long movie.

2.  I kinda hate that Mal lady. Actually, I really hate her.

3.  Why do I feel so uncomfortable?!

I suppose numbers 1 and 2 were natural reactions, but # 3 required a bit more digging. After debriefing this movie with my mom and various friends, I realized I had internalized  (or was on my way to internalizing) the following lessons.  I decided to keep these in list form in an effort to be brief. (something I appreciate about most blogs)

1. Holding on too tightly to the past, paralyzes your future. We all saw how Leo’s character (Cobb) refused to let go of the memories of his deceased wife. I’m sure in many ways this isn’t a bad thing (memories help our loved ones live on), but in this movie, Cobb’s refusal to let go, plunged him into limbo (literally and figuratively) and ultimately put his life in danger.  Even further, his denial of the past put his friends and colleagues in constant danger.   Many of us can see this theme in our own lives,  but primarily when it comes to relationships.  Mal was Leo’s baggage.  She showed up EVERYWHERE and at the most inopportune times.  Mal represents the baggage many of us take from relationship to relationship; not only romantic,  but platonic friendships as well.  Just because someone hurt you in the past doesn’t mean the next friend will do the same.  While it is important that we learn from lessons of the past, it’s equally, if not more important, to live in the moment and let our new friends and loves live outside the eclipse of our past.

2.  No one’s perfect.  It’s ok to tell someone what you’re going through. This lesson hit me like I was getting spanked.   Throughout the film Cobb struggled with his own projections, a huge liability for the work he and his team were doing.  Because he refused to tell others about his projections with Mal,  he consistently put his co-workers in danger, ultimately igniting the demise of their biggest projects.  In addition to putting his co-workers in danger, he didn’t allow his co-workers to rise to the occasion, ultimately helping him with his struggles.  How often have we blocked our blessings by keeping our struggles a secret?  Allow yourself to be blessed by another person by just opening up.  Give someone the opportunity to pray for you, send you an encouraging word, or God forbid take YOU out to dinner.

3.  Don’t project your negative past into your future. Tired of dating a cheating girl? Stop treating the girl who’s NOT cheating on you like she is.  In an effort to avoid familiar “hurts”, we tend to put up barriers or shut ourselves down. While this can be smart to some extent – you also run the risk of creating the very reality you’re trying to avoid.  If you go into your new friendship/relationship expecting lies and deceit, you can bet you’re setting yourself up for exactly that–lies and deceit.  Learn from the past and keep it moving.

So there you have it.  My top 3 lessons from Inception.  What did YOU think about the movie?