I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard of Rapunzel and her long hair. If you have, then you know that she was trapped in a tower by her mother and could only escape with help from the prince.

Now you may be wondering what this has to do with compassion. Well, I believe we’re all trapped in our own prisons just like Rapunzel. The difference is that our prisons are invisible and we create them ourselves. By this I mean the comfort zone and all its many forms.

The comfort zone can appear as a blank wall that blocks us from moving forward. It can also be an image of something we want to achieve but feel like fixing ourselves first. Most commonly, it is the fear of unknown change, which holds us back from taking action. All these things, along with many more, make us feel secure within our lives but also trap us at the same time.

For example, a person who’s afraid of jumping out of an airplane is being held back by fear and uncertainty. They’re afraid because they don’t know what will happen when they jump, even though they’ve been told it’s perfectly safe to do so because they’re wearing a parachute. They’re also afraid because they don’t know how they’ll react

In July, the Disney movie “Tangled” will be released on DVD. This has me very excited because I think the film is a wonderful depiction of compassion. The main character, Rapunzel, is a character who has been in seclusion her entire life. She has never seen another person or even left her tower. Her “mother” is actually a witch named Mother Gothel who kidnapped Rapunzel as a baby and imprisoned her so she could use Rapunzel’s hair to remain eternally young.

Throughout the entire film, we see that Rapunzel experiences great fear at the thought of leaving the tower and going out into the world. We also see how compassionate she is by how much she wants to make her mother happy and do what she asks of her. When she does finally get to go out into the world, it takes a great deal of courage for her to leave behind everything she knows and explore outside of her comfort zone. But when given the opportunity to stay in the palace with Flynn Rider (her love interest), rather than staying where she feels safe, she chooses to return home with him anyway and be true to herself.

By contrast, Mother Gothel seems like a character who would benefit from learning more

Meet Rapunzel. She has been living in the same tower for the past two decades.

Rapunzel is smart and talented, but she is also cautious and timid. She just can’t bring herself to leave the tower.

When she was young, she tried a few times to escape, but each time she got as far as the entrance door, and then turned around and went back inside. She thought that she would feel better if only she could meet some people outside of the tower, yet every time she reached the door she would freeze up and become too scared to go through it.

She had many thoughts about why this fear arose, such as: “What if someone sees me? What if I get lost? What if I run out of money and have to come back?” But none of these explanations made sense to her because logically she knew that none of those scenarios would happen.

Rapunzel still had a strong desire to meet new people and see new things, so after several years of trying to overcome her fear on her own, she decided to seek help from an expert who specializes in helping people overcome their fears.

In the Disney movie Tangled, Rapunzel wants to leave her tower. She has been held captive by an evil witch and believes she will die if she leaves. The tower is her comfort zone. As long as she stays in it, she feels safe and protected. But there’s a whole world beyond that tower that she wants to explore!

Throughout the film, Rapunzel faces various challenges. She climbs over a fence, falls out of a boat, gets chased by evil men, etc… but no matter how scared or uncomfortable she gets, she always seems to bounce back. Eventually, she learns that life isn’t supposed to be perfect and that sometimes we have to take risks in order to achieve our dreams.”

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair..” I was born in the early 1980’s. I am a product of my generation. I can quote lines from “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”, “The Princess Bride”, and “Saved By The Bell”. I remember when all the girls had to have a Cabbage Patch doll for Christmas (I didn’t get one). I remember when the World Wrestling Federation was really called the World Wrestling Federation and not World Wrestling Entertainment.

I have a lot of memories from childhood, both good and bad. One of those memories is the movie “Tangled”. This movie is loosely based on the story of Rapunzel by The Brothers Grimm and it stars Mandy Moore as Rapunzel, Zachary Levi as Flynn Rider, Donna Murphy as Mother Gothel, and Brad Garrett as Hook Hand Thug. Now, I’m not going to tell you the entire story line (go watch the movie), but basically Rapunzel is kidnapped by Mother Gothel at a young age and kept in a tower until she meets Flynn Rider who takes her out into the world which she has never seen before.

This movie struck me at a deep level because it reminded me of myself. You see, Rap

While Rapunzel was still very young, the witch took her to a remote tower with neither stairs nor door and left her there. The only way to reach the girl was by climbing Rapunzel’s long golden hair.

The prince, who lived in a nearby kingdom, passed by the tower one day and heard Rapunzel singing. He fell in love with her voice, so he climbed up her hair into the tower, and they fell in love. He visited often, making sure to leave before the witch returned.

Soon his visits became more and more frequent; eventually he stayed past nightfall. The witch noticed and asked Rapunzel why she was getting fat. Afraid to tell the truth, Rapunzel couldn’t answer. So the witch cut off all of Rapunzel’s hair and banished her to an even more remote place where nobody could hear her sing or climb up her hair anymore. And then she waited for her lover to return that night…

Rapunzel Costume

October 2, 2016

I hope you guys all had a wonderful weekend and are ready for another week! Mine was filled with fun and lots of time with family (including my nephew who wanted to help me do my makeup in this pic!).

Anyway, since it’s October, I’ve decided to start doing some costume posts. Because I think costumes are FUN! And I also like the idea of dressing up as something or someone else because it makes me feel like I can really get into their character. Yes, even at the age of 30 (well, almost 31).

I’ve always loved dressing up as characters from movies or books. Maybe it’s why I love cosplay so much, too. But while cosplay is more about trying to look exactly as a character in a movie/game/comic book looks, this will be more about just being inspired by a character and creating your own interpretation of that character. Hopefully that makes sense.

So anyway, this week is Rapunzel from Tangled! If you haven’t seen the Tangled short film yet, stop reading this and watch it RIGHT NOW. It’s hilarious and amazing: