Mindfulness and Toy Story 2

Last night I watched both Toy Story and Toy Story 2.  I'd seen Toy Story years and years ago, but had never seen Toy Story 2.  I was struck, as I watched especially the second movie, what a lesson there is to learn in it.  Because of an injury, poor Woody can't go to cowboy camp with his owner, Andy, and then as he tries to rescue another toy, he gets kidnapped by a collector who wants to ship him and his fellow toys from an old TV show (which Woody hadn't even realized existed) off to a museum in Japan where they would be on permanent display in pristine condition.  Woody loses his balance for a bit thinking that this kind of immortality would be wonderful, since he knows that eventually Andy will grow up and no longer need him (sounds a bit like parenthood to me--just an aside).  But Buzz Lightfoot brings Woody back to his senses when he reminds Woody that in the first movie Woody had said that there was no higher calling than to be a toy and be loved by a child.  And so Woody rescues the other characters from his TV show, and they go back to be with Andy.  At the end Woody tells Buzz Lightfoot that he knows Andy will grow up and move on, but right now, this is the best, this is where he needs to be and that he is ok with whatever changes the future hold. 


Mindfulness--living fully in the present.  Knowing that each of us is exactly where we are meant to be at this moment in time and that that is all the reality there is.  Woody understands just what he is and how wonderful that is.  And he appreciates the here and now.  He knows that the only constant in life is change and that his life will also change, but how that change will happen or what it will entail cannot be determined in advance.  Like the rest of us, Woody will just have to wait for Toy Story 3 (according to Netflix that will be a very long wait) to discover just how Andy's going off to college will change Woody's life, but for now, Woody will stay fully present and not try to chase the seeming comfort of the museum with its promise of immortality and changelessness.  Can any of us do any better?