I had the opportunity to watch an extremely thought-provoking movie, Inception, and let me say this: it did not disappoint. Easily one of the most highly anticipated movies of the summer from a director whose vision and aptitude at crafting a surprising and compelling story continue to deliver, Inception was intellectually engaging and entertaining. I would not officially endorse it, but for those who want to discuss it, here’s a chance! Leave your comments below and let us know what you think!
Inception follows the story of a man named Cobb who is an “Extractor”, which means he enters people’s dreams and extracts sensitive information from their subconscious. One of the extractor’s team creates a dream world, and they connect to one another with tubes that feed a chemical compound so that Cobb and his team can interact with their victim in a dream that the victim perceives as reality. After a botched job, the victim of an extraction turns out to be a potential client who was giving Cobb an audition. Cobb, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is then tasked to accomplish “Inception”, which is basically the opposite of “Extraction.” He must enter another person’s dream and place an idea there that the victim believes is his own.
The movie deals with a really interesting, complicated, and detailed “dream world” that Christopher Nolan, the director, slowly reveals throughout the movie. Never too cerebral, and excellently paced, the movie unravels its mysteries without overwhelming you, and though questions remain when all is said and done, the dream world with its rules and guidelines feels real without ever coming across as contrived.
For this extremely difficult job of inception, Cobb assembles a “dream team” of dream specialists, and the movie begins to follow the plot movements of a con man or caper movie like “Ocean’s Eleven.” This makes the movie enjoyable, but at its heart, the movie never lets go of its gravitas and wrestles with compelling ideas and questions in unique ways. At the most basic level, Cobb wants to get home to his kids, but he is racked with guilt over an incident that happened to his late wife. That wife, Mal, continues to haunt him in his dreams and ruin his efforts to accomplish what he sets out to do in dream world.
Moreover, the question of “what is real” is woven throughout the movie as Cobb must use his “totem”, an item only he knows about, which tells him if he is in someone else’s dream or if he is in the real world. Cobb’s totem is a top, which spins forever in a dream state but eventually topples over in reality. The movie flawlessly weaves various story elements, characters, and themes together, delivering such a punch at the end that it is hard to believe anyone would walk away without wanting to discuss it with someone.
You might be asking yourself, what does all this have to do with Show Hope and adoption or orphan care? Well… as I was reflecting on the movie and looking online to see what people were saying about the movie, I was concerned about one interpretation of the movie that struck me as off-base. A recurring theme I read from viewers was the movie’s moral is that reality is subjective, so you can choose your own reality and just be happy. For those who haven’t seen the movie, this might not make much sense. For those who have, there are a number of reasons this interpretation doesn’t hold water (and I’d be happy to go into them, but I would have to spoil the ending!),
The basic question that precedes Cobb’s most important decisions in the movie is, “Will you take a step of faith?” Well the question, I believe, is Nolan’s attempt to use inception to place an idea in our mind. Not a destructive one, however, that makes us doubt our own reality. Instead, it is a constructive one that asks us if we really know where we are. Are we able to, like Cobb, step out in faith into reality to embrace those who matter to us? Will we sacrifice our dream worlds, including our secret pleasures as well as our guilt and shame, to live in the real world with the people who need us most? Too much time in the dream world makes one question what is real. Do we have that problem, whether our dream world is movies, fantasy, or our own visions of what ought to be?
What most struck me about this film is how “real” our dream worlds can be. The dream world enslaves many people throughout the film, and it threatens to enslave the protagonist. The movie does not make an argument for subjective reality that we create for ourselves, nor does it say that all reality is a dream. What it says is that the dream world is not real, but it can become your reality if you’re not careful. And the consequences of that are very real, and can be very harmful. It may take faith to believe in a dream, but it also takes faith to believe in what’s real.
I began thinking about how I often step out into the world of adoption and orphan care. Like me, you may have certain dreams and expectations of what to expect and how it will look. This can be especially true for an adoptive family. When an adopted child comes home, it can be hard to reconcile the world of expectations and the world of reality, especially when problems arise, as problems tend to do.
Not only that, we bring our own demons into situations—we bring our guilt and shame stemming from unforgiveness of others and ourselves, and these can have harmful consequences on others. We often want to hold onto our dreams, even if it puts others at risk, and we want to hold onto our deep secrets that imprison us. We want proofs for everything before we act, and we want to know that everything will be ok before we step out. These can together keep us from truly loving and truly interacting in the real world in a healthy way.
I believe Inception makes a compelling case that only by stepping out in faith, willing to sacrifice your dream worlds, and having dealt with your own personal demons, will you be free to love those that are around you. Now this doesn’t ensure that one’s journey into adoption will then be picture-perfect. Instead it simply means that one will be free to deal with the real world. Our dream worlds can have value, but ultimately, the world of dreams that can fill prospective adoptive parents will not likely match the reality in which we will find ourselves. The dream world won’t enable us to deal with even the hard issues that arise, for even the “perfections and imperfections” of a dream world will ring false. Living in that dream world can have real consequences. Will we be able to leave those dreams behind and step out in faith to love the children that are entrusted to us?
For prospective adoptive families, a good resource to learn about the reality of the world of adoption is at an upcoming conference. Show Hope is sponsoring the Empowered to Connect Conference Sept 10-11 in Nashville, TN. This conference will equip families, churches, and professionals to bring hope and healing to adoptive and foster children. It is an excellent resource for both pre-and post- adoptive parents, to give them the tools they need to understand and navigate the realities of adoption.
It is not that we should stop dreaming, it is simply that we must stay rooted in the real world so we can be confident and walk in faith in the reality we find ourselves. And we have a good God who is real and is in control, though it takes faith to believe that. He will be the power we need to face our own reality, whether it is in the world of adoption, orphan care or beyond. The Empowered to Connect Conference will help many adoptive families do just that.
