It was the song heard round the world. Over and over and over and OVER again. And we’re still listening to it.
As sick as I sometimes get of hearing it, it also never really gets old. I often find myself singing my Let It Go guts out in the car with my little girls.
Why do we all love it so much? (Or I suppose some people hate it and it’s agendas…)
I’d probably guess that, besides it’s catchy tune and lyrics, is that it speaks to each of us so much. The lyrics are simple and can be applied to so many things to every individual. It’s an anthem of letting go of what you are struggling with, of being true to yourself.
I don’t think that is ever a bad message to sing with all of your heart.
For many people who are unorthodox members or those trying to make the church work for them, it’s a personal anthem and story of where they are at and what they wish to be.
Let’s run through it, shall we?
A kingdom of isolation and it looks like I’m the queen.
It doesn’t take much to figure out why someone would feel alone as they navigate a faith journey. Their thoughts, their rejection of certain tenets of the gospel or the culture, has put them on an icy mountain, all alone. While they may not really be actually alone, many people feel very alone.
The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside
Couldn’t keep it in, heaven knows I tried!
Those emotions, thoughts, feelings is very much an inner storm of conflict. You are at constant conflict with what you have grown up knowing and believing. Then you add in the emotional conflict of family and friends. If anyone knows, if you voice even minor things which go against the grain or that the general body doesn’t agree with, there can be great repercussions. You can lose friends or familial relationships. You could be released from callings you love and are good at or have the bishop request meeting with you. Is it any wonder people keep their doubts or unorthodoxy to themselves?
Don’t let them in, don’t let them see
Be the good girl you always have to be
Conceal, don’t feel, don’t let them know
Well, now they know!
Just be good. Keep it all to yourself. If you would just do this. Or that. Then it will be better. Doubt your doubts. Go to the temple. Pray more. Read your scriptures. Because if you’re not good, you’re being led astray. You’re not doing it right if you’re not getting the right answers.
Eventually it’s going to come out. Because, amazingly enough, the spirit can genuinely tell people the opposite of what you think they should be hearing.
And when it comes out, once people know… it can be absolutely freeing. Being genuine and authentic is WAY better than trying to be a person you think you need to be for others.
Let it go, let it go
Can’t hold it back anymore
Let it go, let it go
Turn away and slam the door!
The freedom that comes with the chorus is pretty self explanatory. The joy that comes with being able to be true to yourself is exactly how Elsa depicts it. The inhibitions are gone. For me, it’s like finally being able to sing and dance to my hearts content without caring how I look or sound.
I don’t care
What they’re going to say
Let the storm rage on,
The cold never bothered me anyway!
Once someone finally lets things go, they finally feel comfortable expressing themselves. This is why you see people posting things that are “critical” about the church. It’s important for them to express these feelings, just as it’s important to those who are more orthodox to share their testimony of their absolute beliefs. Don’t let the cold bother you!
It’s funny how some distance
Makes everything seem small
And the fears that once controlled me
Can’t get to me at all!
This one could mean a couple of different things. For one, separating themselves gives them clarity. When you emotionally remove yourself from an envrionment or situation, all the little details of what is going on don’t matter as much.
Another take is that once people put a little more distance between their own beliefs and traditional beliefs that they can often let little things go that maybe would have bothered them before.
I also really love the wording of fears controlling you. There are many internal fears unorthodox members or member who may desire to leave the church have. And they absolutely do control you.
It’s time to see what I can do
To test the limits and break through
No right, no wrong, no rules for me I’m free!
Everyone should be able to figure out what works best for them. We all have very different personalities and life experiences. I think we see the same thing even with very devout members. There are so many aspects of the mormon religion that a person can’t help if one thing speaks to them while another does not. It’s freeing for many people to bust open the doors of their mind and be open to anything. It’s refreshing to have to figure things out based solely on how you feel about it, without any religious influence beyond what speaks to your soul.
My power flurries through the air into the ground
My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around
And one thought crystallizes like an icy blast
I’m never going back,
The past is in the past!
It’s interesting to see a person’s confidence of themself and who they are grow as they shed the molds and ideas which they thought they had to have. I love the illusion of a person’s soul spiraling in frozen fractals. How beautiful.
In regards to the past being in the past, when we have a life changing experience, our very selves are changed. There is no going back to who you are. This was something I experienced when I lost my twin sons nearly four years ago. It’s very emotional to lose the person you were, through no fault of your own. But it’s also deeply moving to figure out the person you are and to realize that you are a fluid being, being shaped by life’s unpredictable elements and storms.
You can never be the person you were before, but the new person isn’t too bad.
And finally,
And I’ll rise like the break of dawn
Let it go, let it go
That perfect girl is gone!
That confidence and acknowledgment that you will never be the person you were before and being able to let it go is what makes you as beautiful and magnificent as the sun breaking over the horizon. Another day and a new and wonderful person.
Elsa letting go of the person she was didn’t change her love for her sister or her heart. It actually made her a better person who was able to freely love those she cared about.
I hope that the Elsas out there can find a way to let it all go and be the person they need to be. I hope the Annas can show their unconditional love to their sisters (and brothers) and help them feel loved without judgment or condemnation. Anna was truely amazed at the person her sister was and believed in the person she could be by letting go.
I love this Carrie. From the minute I first heard this song, I related it to my relationship with the church. I have “let it go” by choosing to be authentic about my beliefs and to be open about my questions and concerns. It is the only way I can make it work.
“Defying Gravity” from Wicked is also a great metaphor for the journey:
“That perfect girl is gone!”
I really think she is talking about the fake “perfect” person she was pretending to be.
You go girl!
I also caught that “perfect girl is gone”.
I would assume “trying to be perfect” is better. Just trying to be really a good person and worrying more about what good you can do than the things you are not able to squeeze into your day is a much more healthy way to respect your God.
I, too, have noted parallels of this song to my faith journey. In many respects, I still am in the “conceal, don’t feel, don’t let them know” stage (though “feeling” is something I do very deeply), but as I belt out the “let it go” lyrics with my kids in the car, I deeply long to really let it go – let “them” know – my bishop, my ward, my friends, my family – and let the consequences fall as they may. That at least I will be free from the internal struggle that keeping my thought and feelings concealed has created. But I fear those consequences, especially when it comes to my bishop or ward members knowing, and I bite my tongue. The storm rages on inside.
Recently I opened up to my father-in-law, who is a stake president (not mine, though; we live in different states), and in many respects the patriarchal leader of our family (I will also add that we have a close familial relationship: I see him as my dad; he sees me as his daughter). He was visiting over the holidays, and I mustered up the courage to request a heart-to-heart. For privacy, we sat in his car on my driveway, and there in the passenger seat by his side and I let everything out – how I felt about gender and LGBT issues, plural marriage, Joseph Smith, revelation verses inspiration, Mother in Heaven, changes in doctrine, God, etc. Basically everything that I had been struggling with for the past year and a half, I let it go. I let him know. And it was freeing! Just to have at least one other person besides my husband (who has been wonderfully supportive of me on my faith journey, and with whom I have been able to discuss every issue as I have encountered them) within my close Mormon circle know what I have and am going through and what I have come to believe and no longer believe – it was such a relief! That around him, I can be authentic because he knows how I feel, what I think. No more concealing, pretending I am not feeling. At least with my father-in-law, now I am free.
I would like to have that same authenticity and freedom around everyone. I believe my faith journey is leading me there, though I am not there yet. Until then, I press on in my journey, seeking God’s guidance and allowing him to morph me into what S/He would have me be, and not necessarily what the Church would have me be. I seek to embrace the new me, rather than mourn the “perfect” girl I once was, and let what and Who I stand for be known.