Welcome Peace Into Your Life

If you’ve never seen the film, “Sky High” — it’s a film about a high school in the sky where students and teachers with supernatural abilities go to learn, educate and expand their superpowers. While not everyone can fly to get there, they do have somewhat of a magic school bus, to transport the supernatural non-flyers to the anti-gravity school in the clouds. The film has a couple powerful overarching messages: how the love of power and control creates damage; the impact of absent fathers; the freedom of choice; the freedom to change; how focusing on the good brings out the best in others; and how team diversity opens the path for ultimate success.  

The main character who holds most of the weight from these messages is Warren Peace, the son of a supervillain, with an unknown mother. Upon meeting him, we see the anger and hatred he holds. He’s a pyrokinetic, which makes him dangerous, when his powers aren’t used for good, when he is fueled by his anger/rage to cause division and destruction. In the beginning of the film, Warren doesn’t exactly have friends — but that all changes by the end of the film, where he joins the supernatural “sidekicks” in saving the school, and the teachers and classmates who were turned into babies by the real villain in the film, Royal Pain, disguised as Gwen Grayson. 

The thing about Warren though, his internal struggle was blatantly depicted in the film through his name: “Warren Peace”; “war and peace”. With the events in the plot, what we get to see in Warren is an awakening to choosing peace. We get to watch the shift in seeing a lone-wolf realize that when working together, people will help you succeed. We first get a look at this when Warren and Will Stronghold, the main protagonist, have to team up in a battle to save a dummy citizen from destruction. This after they had already fought each other — their principal gave an assignment for them to work together. In this battle against the well-known bullies of the school — the two really don’t have time to focus on differences and can’t afford to work individually. With a timer winding down, they are forced into solution-oriented, team-thinking. As the scene pans out, Warren assumes somewhat of a sidekick roll in the battle, an area that is both out of his comfort zone but an area that opens the pathway to peace — success isn’t resting on his shoulders alone. 

Warren though is a bit like Switzerland. We get to see him down to earth in a couple scenes at his job at the Paper Lantern. In two different scenes we see him as a mitigation aid between Will and Layla (our green ivy superpower chick). He’s in service, literally as the waiter, but also as a neutral observer to the on-going conflict between Will and Layla. It’s in this space that we get to see Warren’s truth shine: he knows the reality of life feeling split in two, in being at war with oneself with the constant need to have to choose peace. It’s in this space, where we also see him fully at peace: areas of conflict. Pretty interceptive, right? 

So how do you welcome peace into your life when you have two competing forces buzzing around you? You have to find the happy medium. It’s not about being neutral, in the sense that you coast through life, it’s about walking with your head held high holding reverence for the extremely positive and extremely negative experiences you’ve lived through. And while you don’t need to go out of your way to create negative experiences, it’s important to note that a whole lot of good is needed to filter out one hugely impactful bad experience. A whole lot of people are needed to witness and usher you out of a black hole of the mind. If you are being mindful of the timer winding down on life and want to move past an extremely damaging event, recruit an army. Join a team — like Warren Peace. By the end of the film, he’s no longer a lone-wolf, but part of the pack, a superhero, who also still holds some of his Switzerland vibes. 

Like Warren, you have to let others in and also allow yourself to join in. Speaking from personal experience, “losing” a year to outwardly recruit help, facing judgements and skepticism from the world is a far better investment of time and energy, than 20 years spent going it alone after not having the vocabulary or support system to speak up. Nothing matters, other than the fact that you can do things differently, second, or third time around. There is time for you to try again. So use your time, the most effective and efficient way possible.

Learn from me, here’s a quick portrait of this: 

-A nine year old doesn’t get her needs met after trauma; without the vocabulary, with the past gaslighting and being met with silence, it takes her 21 years to be “met” with any kind of validation or witnessing. 

-A fifteen year old doesn’t get her needs met after trauma; where the event is so traumatizing, it is blocked out of her memory. After 6 years, she was conditioned to reject her needs entirely, disowning her own story. With C-PTSD already developing, this worsens her condition. It takes 7 years to recognize something is severely wrong under the surface, another 8 to be met with validation/witnessing. That second time, there wasn’t even a chance to process. 

-A thirty year old uncovers that 15-year suppressed memory, which caused her to overlook the experience from 9. She’s traumatized again but this time, she speaks up right away. This time, she says no to entertaining the experience in her psyche for longer than necessary, taking care and ownership of the experience. Within two years, she’s received an overflow of validation and witnessing, helping her not only filter out the darkness from this recent experience, but also the darkness from the past two.

What’s more effective then, fighting alone or recruiting an army? 

If you want peace, don’t fight the battle alone. Find the spaces where your gifts, talents and truth shine, to strengthen your mind and spirit. When you know the level of darkness you’re dealing with, don’t underestimate its power and try and keep a lid on it — let the light in. Let the light in, and the darkness will be driven out, without burn-out on your part. Whatever the event was that brought the darkness over you, it’s a problem to be solved, not a reflection of your identity or your worth.

That’s what the light of the world came here to show us how to do. 

Do you hear what I hear? 

-B