EP71: UnDONE and NEVERENDING (The Nothing Part 2)(w3w) with Toby Brooks

Summary:

In this episode, Toby Brooks continues his reflections on the 1984 classic film "The NeverEnding Story." He explores the hidden meanings and personal growth he has experienced since first watching the movie as a child. Toby discusses the challenges faced by the main character, Atreyu, as he navigates through the Sphinx gate and the Magic Mirror gate. He also delves into the concept of the "Sea of Possibilities" and the destructive force of The Nothing. Toby reflects on the importance of self-worth, humility, and staying true to one's purpose in the face of adversity.

Key Takeaways:

1. The Sphinx gate represents the need for individuals to believe in their own worth and authenticity.
2. The Magic Mirror gate symbolizes the confrontation with one's true self, including both positive and negative aspects.
3. Unrestrained possibilities can be overwhelming and paralyzing without guidance and direction.
4. It is important to discern between opportunities that align with one's purpose and those that are merely distractions.
5. The destructive force of The Nothing grows stronger when people lose hope and forget their dreams.

Quotes:

• "Instead of polishing my armor, maybe I should be nourishing my body." - Toby Brooks
• "It isn't hubris we should seek. It is quiet, grounded, hard-earned humility." - Toby Brooks
• "No matter how sparkly or wonderful an opportunity is, if it doesn't align with your purpose, it's a distraction." - Neil Kennedy
• "The nothing that ultimately destroyed Fantasia is the emptiness that's left when life tests us, tries us, batters us, and bloodies us." - Toby Brooks

Transcript

0:00

The nothing that ultimately destroyed Fantasia? It's the emptiness that's left when life tests us, tries us, batters us, and bloodies us as we try our best to make our way in the world. It is the undoing that happens when life pulls us apart. But you'll have to watch the rest of the movie if you don't recall what's next, because after Fantasia is obliterated, there's still more to the story. Not only is it never-ending, it is undone. It is Word to the Third, my reflections on purpose, life, and growth. I'm Toby Brooks, a speaker, author, professor, and forever student. Each week on Becoming Undone, I bring you guests who've dared bravely, risked mightily, and grown relentlessly. High achievers who've transformed from falling apart to falling into place. But every third episode or so, it's my turn to reflect, refine, and reprocess onward to the third. Earlier this week, I dropped episode 69, the first half of my reflections on the 1984 classic The Never-Ending Story. Honestly, I never really intended for it to be a two-parter, but once I started unpacking the hidden meanings of not just what the creators had wedged in, but also how the lifetime that has elapsed between the time I first saw it at nine until now has changed and influenced the way I felt, I started to get a little long-winded. So I decided to split it in half. And ever the people pleaser, I didn't want to leave the huge crowd of folks waiting who'd listened to the first episode and knew that their Christmas was just going to be ruined if they didn't hear the rest of my take. I kid, seriously, I felt like I needed to finish this one up while the emotions were still fresh. Last we checked, our main character Bastion is still stashed away school's dusty attic with a half-eaten PB&J, a blanket covered in allergens, and several lit candles that are a nudge away from burning the whole place down. But in our story within the story, brave hero Atreyu is still grieving the loss of his beloved horse Artax, but he's thankful to have been rescued from the swamps of sadness by my personal favorite Falkor the Luck Dragon. The Nothing rages on. Atreyu happens into a pair of gnomes, the kindly old Professor Ingewook and his wife, near the Southern Oracle. Here's where our story starts to become a little Legend of Zelda-like, and the quest gets a little tricky. Atreyu has to successfully navigate a series of gates and challenges before he can hopefully meet the Oracle and figure out how to defeat the nothing. The first challenge is to successfully pass through the Sphinx gate. Now as I said last episode, I've never been one to instinctively know what a poem or a story represents. I'm still not sure what the Sphinxes represent here. What nine-year-old me could have told you without a doubt was that the Sphinxes were topless, and today's me wonders why on earth did the creators feel the need to make anatomically correct D-cups for Sphinx portrayal in a kids movie. It's a little creepy. But anyway, the professor shows Atreyu the gate and teaches him a few things, after we watch a brave knight get eye-lasered into oblivion. Why? The Sphinx's eyes stay closed until someone who does not feel his own worth tries to pass by. Here comes one that looks fancy. Let's see what he really thinks of himself. Look, look. He's going on. I think he's going to make it. The Sphinx's eyes, are they open or shut? They're shut. Over here. No, wait! The eyes are open! Oh, no! No! Ah! Did he make it? Did he? No. Fancy armor doesn't help. The sphinxes can see straight into your heart. Now to recap, Atreyu is wide-eyed and full of wonder and along with his best friend he sets out on this quest where they find nothing in the Silver Mountains, the Desert of Shattered Hopes, or the Crystal Towers. He loses that friend and nearly dies himself in the swamps of sadness. Now he's emerged and he's faced with his next critical challenge. Now the night we saw Die looked like he had it all together. He had a beautiful horse, his armor was pristine and polished. To the outside world, he was a him as I pound my chest. This guy looked like a hero, he moved like a hero, he approached the challenge like a hero. But when the Sphinxes looked through that outward appearance and saw into his heart, they saw the truth. Even though we never hear the knight utter a word, we can tell that what he said didn't match what he believed. The past few weeks I've heard multiple guests talk about imposter syndrome. My doctoral work was focused on interviewing teachers to hear what they believed about teaching and then watching them in the classroom to see if those espoused beliefs actually showed up. Sometimes they did, but most of the time they didn't. I can't speak for you, but I have a cherished, valued, well-maintained set of armor that I keep, and I'd be happy to show it to you if you want to see it. It's what lie beneath it that I'm most protective of. Inkybook says that destruction only comes at the first gate if someone who doesn't feel their own worth tries to pass. And that's when it hit me, that maybe I have it all wrong. Instead of polishing my armor, maybe I should be nourishing my body. Instead of grooming my trusty stallion, maybe I should be plowing my heart. Maybe instead of raising a brightly colored banner for all the sea or drawing a shiny flashy sword, I should be focused instead on things of substance. I don't want you to think that I'm the best professor you've ever had, or the most thought-provoking podcaster you've ever heard, or the most gripping author you've ever read. I want to be those things. To put in the work and to know that I've done and I am doing the hard things in order to earn the right to have confidence in that fact. It isn't hubris we should seek. It is quiet, grounded, hard-earned humility. Atreyu manages to get through the gates. Barely. Apparently he knows that he's on this quest to save his world because people trust him and they believe in his bravery. And so, like life, once we make it through the biggest challenge we've ever encountered, it isn't long until life tests us again in a new way. The next test is the magic mirror gate. Next is the magic mirror gate! Atreyo has to face his true self! So what? That won't be too hard for him. That's what everyone thinks. But kind people find that they are cruel. Brave men discover that they are really cowards. Confronted with their true selves, most men run away screaming. Atreyu makes it through after seeing Bastion in the mirror. He didn't run away screaming. He might not have understood what or who he saw, but he was cool with it. I feel like the magic mirror gate would be easy, even exciting, for young me to encounter. But for older me, I get why it could be so terrifying. If the Sphinx gate could look into our hearts and see the best version of ourselves that we ourselves are maybe too timid to believe, then the magic mirror gate is just the opposite, peering in to see the selfishness, the greed, the pettiness that is no less me too. I'm glad I'm not on this quest, because no obstacle seems quite as humbling and potentially devastating to me at this moment, than a sobering confrontation with all the worst parts of who I've become. So Atreyu makes it through the magic mirror gate. And here's where 9-year-old me was a thousand percent lost from this point on. I didn't get it. But having lived my life, and reading a few summaries online, for all of life's triumphs and tribulations, for all the great things and the awful, I think I understand it now. He meets the Southern Oracle, which sidebar, is really just the same two big boobed sphinxes splashed with blue stage lights instead of gold, but I digress. Atreyu gets his needed intel, and he and Falcor flee as once again, the nothing moves in and consumes the Oracle. And then this happens. The Sea of Possibilities. I feel like we should have spent some time here before having to traipse through that desert of shattered hopes, but whatever. Why could they go no further? My daughter Brynn can help me out on this one. Life for Brynn, especially in high school, was like the menu at Sonic. Just overwhelming. There's too many choices. I don't like going there because it's just too hard. We told our daughter from the day she was born that she could be anything and do anything if she only tried. In retrospect, unrestrained possibilities without guidance and direction, without boundaries of some sort, can be not just scary but even crippling. As she's matured she still recognizes that she can frequently succumb to paralysis by analysis. She's learned to zero in on what matters most and to not give peripheral possibilities her energy. Compare that to my son Tay. This kid was raised in the same house by the same parents and until two years ago went to the same school. He has applied and been accepted into precisely one college, his first choice. He's narrowing his major, but I truly believe he knows in his heart where he plans to be, what he plans to be doing, and how he intends to get there already. He isn't scared by possibilities, because I think he's wise beyond his years and his ability to discern at a glance what's truly possible and what might instead just be a diversion. My friend Neil Kennedy, who I intend to get on the show in 2024, is a former pastor and an accomplished author. He used to work as a coal miner, but eventually he answered the calling on his life to ministry. Neil says that no matter how sparkly or wonderful an opportunity is, if it doesn't align with your purpose, it's a distraction. There's a bit of an aside that happens next as Atreyu speaks with another of my favorites in the film, The Rockbiter. And I could unpack this in an entire episode. But the Rockbiter is grieving because the Nothing managed to rip away his friends. He tried his best to hold them tightly. He's this huge strong fella made out of granite. They don't come tougher than a dude literally made out of stone. It's heartbreaking to see him lament his own weakness and regret not being strong enough to save his world and those he cares about. I always thought that's what they were. Oh, my little friends. I couldn't hold on to them. The nothing pulled them right out of my hands. I failed. At the film's climax, Atreyu meets up with the nothings, vice president of destruction, G'mork. A fairly poor attempt at an animatronic wolf worthy of a spot at Chobus Pizza with Billy Bob and the rest of the band. G'mork spills the tea that serves to fill in any slow like I was. Or I am. But why, Fantasia, are you dying then? Because people have begun to lose their hopes and forget their dreams. So the nothing grows stronger. What is the nothing? It's the emptiness that's left. It is like a despair, destroying this world. It is like a despair, destroying this world. It is like a despair, destroying this world. It is like a despair, destroying this world. It is like a despair, destroying this world. It is like a despair, destroying this world. It is like a despair, destroying this world. It is like a despair, destroying this world. It is like a despair, destroying this world. It is like a despair, destroying this world. It is like a despair, destroying this world. It is like a despair, destroying this world. It is like a despair, destroying this world. It is like a despair, destroying this world. It is like a despair, destroying this world. It is like a despair, destroying this world. It is like a despair, destroying this world. It is like a despair, destroying this world. It is like a despair, destroying this world. It is like a despair, destroying this world. It is like a despair, destroying this world. It is like a despair Destroying this world and I have been trying to help it Because people who have no hopes are easy to control And whoever has the control Has the power. So that's it. The nothing that ultimately destroyed Fantasia. It's the emptiness that's left when life tests us, tries us, batters us, and bloodies us as we try our best to make our way in the world. It is the undoing that happens when life pulls us apart. But you'll have to watch the rest of the movie if you don't recall what's next, because after Fantasia is obliterated, there's still more to the story. Not only is it never-ending, it is undone. Well, that wraps up another week. What about you? What are you working on or waiting for? What are you doing in the meantime to get better every day? I'd love to help and I'd love to hear about it. Surf on over to undonepodcast.com and drop me a note. For more info on today's episode, be sure to check it out on the web. Simply go to undonepodcast.com backslash EP 71 to see the notes, links, and images related to today's show. I'm Toby Brooks, and this has been Word to the Third. Becoming Undone is a NitroHype Creative Production written and produced by me, Toby Brooks. If you or someone you know has a story of resilience and victory to share for Becoming Undone, contact me at undone podcast.com. Follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at becoming undone pod and follow me at Toby J Brooks. Listen, subscribe, and leave me a review at Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get so I'm. Bye!