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LEGO® Lessons, Continued

17 June 2014

Allison watched The LEGO® Movie for the third time and reflected on the things she's learned from her work with Professor LEGO over the years as well as the many lessons in this “AWESOME!!!” movie.

Tags: allison read, allison watched, animation, creativity, lego lessons, mbti, teams

It’s been almost two years since I’ve written about my LEGO lessons. That’s probably because my godson aka Professor LEGO has kind of outgrown LEGO for the moment. He tells me this happens around age 12 and that I should try to get over it. I then tell him that his Yoda-like instructions over the years have been life-changing for me. He then gleefully laughs at me, lovingly rolls his eyes, and reiterates, “Get over it, Mama Bling. I’m growing up.” His 15-year old brother now drives me around in my car and the 14-year old is pitching 75+ miles per hour so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but I still mourn the loss of my LEGO lessons and endeavor to figure out how to continue to grow during Yoda’s period of silence.

Just in case you think I’m exaggerating about the things he’s taught me over the years, check out these three past posts. You’ll see why I love (but also struggle with) LEGO, how I’ve achieved Myers-Briggs Type Indicator whole type development through LEGO (seriously), and the progress I’ve made over the years including a video in which my godson waxes poetically about the creativity LEGO helps him to explore and praises me for less cursing than the year before (embarrassing, but true).

So when The LEGO Movie came out this year, I was pretty excited to see it with my kid-at-heart pals, Rachel and Greg, and then again with my seven-year old friend, Mirabelle. She assures me that she will not outgrow LEGO for a while and I think her parents are glad for me to bond with her in this way even if they are a little annoyed that I taught her the Everything is AWESOME!!! song in the car ride home. (Sorry, Daphne and Matty, but you’ve got to admit—it’s a catchy tune!)

The LEGO Movie DVD was finally released today and I can now enjoy it whenever I want. If you’re a parent, you might be understandably sick of it. While a lot of grown-ups I know have thoroughly enjoyed the movie, if you don’t have kids or grandkids, I can understand how you might be thinking, “Why on earth would I see it?” My answers are as follows.

It’s a creative, artistic masterpiece. It's funny and full of kid and adult humor that’s good fun for both groups. (Mirabelle caught a lot of the grown-up stuff and gave me several wise, “grown-ups are crazy” looks—she’s right. We are crazy sometimes.) There are lessons about how to be an individual contributor and when to pull together as a team as well wisdom about the merits of following and not following the directions. You’ll get to ponder the need for rules and appropriate controls as well as the importance of play, messiness, and outlandish imaginings. (All are important for great creativity and innovation.) You’ll think about how hard it can be to fit in. (We've all wanted to be in the cool kids club.) You'll learn how to be a good friend and build better relationships (including romantic ones). Whether you have kids or need to get in touch with your inner kid, I think you’ll laugh and learn. For those of you who are already converts, I hope you’ll share some of your favorite lessons in the comment section below.

p.s. Are you a little curious about Tegan and Sara's Everything is AWESOME!!! theme song mentioned above? While it's clearly part ridiculous parody, it's also fabulous fun and a great ode to the power of teams, the importance of thinking positively before you feel positive, and faking it ‘til you make it when life is less than awesome. This video gives you the tune, some fun images from the movie, and flashes the lyrics across the screen. (Come on, you know you want to, press play!)

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