What I learned from Lilo and Stitch

Mid Week Musings #264

The last few weeks have seen my partner and me staying with her daughter her partner and their two-year-old son

My grandson.

One of the “pleasures” during our stay has been the cycling of the little ones’ favourite TV shows and Movies

This has been educational… sometimes.

I was surprised to discover that both Teletubbies and The Clangers are still on the menu of children’s TV fare. Still, one of my grandson’s favourites is a series featuring a genetically engineered creature from another galaxy and a little girl whose parents have died.

Which all sounds very jolly, doesn’t it?

The soundtrack is littered with Elvis Presley songs, mainly from his Hawaiian-related films. As the little girl in the story tells her alien mutant…

Elvis Presley was a model citizen. I’ve compiled a list of his traits for you to practice. Number one… is dancing!” — Lilo

In the story, Experiment 626 was illegally created by mad alien scientist Dr. Jumba Jookiba to cause chaos across the galaxy. He is marked by his short temper and mischievous behaviour.

Monstrosity? What you see before you is the first of a new species. I call it Experiment 626. He is fire-proof, bullet-proof, and can think faster than super computer. He can see in the dark, and move objects three thousand times his size. His only instinct… to destroy everything he touches! : Jumba

The little girl who befriends this creature is Lilo Pelekai.

Her name, Lilo, Is based on a Hawaiian word literally meaning “lost”. She is a young Native Hawaiian girl who lives on the island of Kauaʻi with her older sister Nani.

She is somewhat wilful and manages to alienate her friends, so becoming a bit of a loner.

In the first movie, her older sister (Nani) is obviously having problems holding the family together, and social services are involved in the situation. Both girls are working through the pain of the loss of their parents.

Cobra Bubbles is their assigned social worker (voiced by Ving Rhames) in the Movies. He is called to Nani’s house to determine the fate of her guardianship over Lilo, only to find Lilo home by herself, the front door nailed shut, and Nani trying to get in via the dog flap.

Let me illuminate to you the precarious situation in which you have found yourself. I am the one they call when things go wrong, and things have indeed gone wrong. — Cobra Bubbles

© Disney

The first meeting with Bubbles doesn’t go well….

Bubbles: Let’s talk about you. Are you… happy?

Lilo: I’m adjusted.
[Repeats what Nani is signing to her behind Bubbles’ back]

Lilo: I eat all four food groups, and look both ways before crossing the street… and take long naps…

[Nani pumps her fist in triumph]
Lilo: and get disciplined?
Mr. Cobra Bubbles: Disciplined?

Lilo: Yeah! She disciplines me real good.
[Nani holds out here hand in “stop” gesture]

Lilo: Sometimes five times a day! With bricks!
Mr. Cobra Bubbles: Bricks?
Lilo: Uh huh… in a pillow case…

Experiment 626, escaping his captors, lands on Earth, the island of Kauaʻi, to be specific.

The Galactic Council at first wants to destroy the experiment and the Earth alongside it. However, the Earth is a protected Nature Reserve for the breeding of one of the Universes’ very endangered species. Mosquitoes.

So a collection of aliens are dispatched to capture the genetically engineered creature.

Experiment 626 is adopted by the lonely Lilo, who believes him to be a dog, naming him Stitch.

The following adventures are about the growing friendship and the nature of family. Lilo is encouraged to reflect on her behaviour and relationships whilst seeking to encourage Stitch to overcome his own conditioning.

And that’s all the background you need.

If we choose to, we can find several themes that could immediately apply to our own lives and challenges.

For example, Lilo’s sister reminds us that,

Sometimes you try your hardest. But things don’t work out the way you want them to. Some things have to change, and maybe, sometimes they are for the better : Nina

And about the nature of friendship…

Lilo, if they only liked you because you had a cute pet, then who needs them? You have to trust your real friends. Stitch, for one. He’s a royal pain, but he’s loyal, and he’d never ever ever do anything that would hurt you. Thats a true friend : Nina

Perhaps the biggest lesson in these stories is about family.

We are told that Lilo’s father created their family motto, Ohana.

Lilo explains to Stitch…

‘Ohana’ means ‘family’. ‘Family’ means ‘no one gets left behind’. But if you want to leave, you can. I’ll remember you though. I remember everyone that leaves.”

And Stitch, the lost alien, eventually recognises…

This Is My Family. I Found It, All On My Own. It’s Little And Broken, But Still Good. Yeah. Still Good.

In Hawaiian and Polynesian cultures, families are not restricted to blood relatives. Family relates to those to who we choose to be close.

This is an important point in these stories. Nani and Lilo create an extended family around them, albeit an extended family of aliens. We learn and grow through this kind of extended, adopted family of friends and important (significant) others.

As Stitch’s “creator’ says

626 was designed to be a monster, but now he has nothing to destroy. You see, I never gave him a greater purpose. What must it be like to have nothing, not even memories to look back on in the middle of the night?

Through their various adventures, all of the characters create new, relevant and rich memories. Experiences of living, being and doing.

Learning to understand each other, our individual natures and needs is a repeating theme in the stories. Lilo works to understand what makes Stitch, Stitch and he does the same for her.

Stitch is troubled. He needs desserts. — Lilo

Their relationship is certainly not that of a human and pet. It is one of, siblings, perhaps soul mates. In some ways, Stitch could be seen as Lilo’s shadow and she his counterpart.

Within their extended family is David, a potential suitor for Nani. He is not above some grounded, home-spun philosophical quotes of his own.

I may not be a doctor, but I know there’s no better cure for a sour face than a couple of boards and some choice waves. Whatcha think?

All of this reminds us that if we listen, we can hear wisdom in the words of everyone we meet.

© Disney

Aloha.

The more Aloaha’s you give the more you get back : Nani

Aloha is an oft-repeated word in the Lilo and Stitch stories. It is perhaps the most well-known of Hawaiian words. However, “the spirit” of Aloha is what is so clearly hinted at in these cartoons.

The word Aloha is Hawaiian/Polynesian in origin but only seems to date back to the early 1800s.

When broken down, the literal translation of the phrase is [Alo] meaning ‘presence’ and [Hā] meaning ‘breath. ‘

Together the word aloha thus relates to ‘The presence of breath’ or ‘breath of life”.

Legend says the spirit behind aloha was taught to the Hawaiian children long ago as a way of life embodied in the following acronym:

A: “Akahai,” meaning kindness, to be expressed with tenderness

L: “Lokahi,” meaning unity, to be expressed with harmony

O: “Oluolu,” meaning agreeable, to be expressed with pleasantness

H: “Haahaa,” meaning humility, to be expressed with modesty

A: “Ahonui,” meaning patience, to be expressed with perseverance

Thus when Lilo is told by Nani…

Letting loved ones go demonstrates Aloha

So much more than a word of greeting or parting, Aloha is about living, being and sharing. We can see more than a tip of the hat to this deeper meaning in the Lilo and Stitch stories.

In Hawaiian beliefs, it is suggested that language, our words, possess “mana” or a “power derived from a spiritual source.”

This belief has given rise to the phrase, O ‘oe ka lua’ahi o kāu mele,

O ‘oe ka lua’ahi o kāu mele can be translated loosely as “You bear both the good and the bad consequences of the poetry you compose.”

Thus, the skilful manipulation of language by “Haku Mele’ (composers) and those who repeat (chant/sing) their words is of the utmost reverence and importance.

Those working in the arts of poetry, dance and music (chants and song) are considered to be teachers of “hula”.

Yes, that’s the word we recognise and relate specifically to dance, but actually relates to poetry, music (song/chants) and dance.

The teacher of hula is known as the Kumu hula.

Kumu means the “source of knowledge”, or literally “teacher”.

Embedded within the words, the poetry and dance of the Hawaiian culture is thus the “source of knowledge”, the source of inspiration. It is no surprise then that we can find layers of meaning a relevance within a Hawaiian-based children’s cartoon.

Like so many “children’s” stories, there are layers of meaning within the main narrative.

As in all stories, the viewer and listener will read meaning and relevance beyond what is superficially there. The story contains words with a life {spirit} of their own, and in that spirit, different meanings and resonances can be found.

Stitch was Experiment 626, which implies the existence of 625 other experiments. In later stories, some of these “other” experiments appear. How Stitch relates to each of them, his genetic family in a very real sense, opens up some bigger challenges for the characters and deeper questions for us.

We are all reflections of the circumstances that have brought us to this point in our lives.

We are, in part, the result of the conditioning we have undergone and the experiences we have had.

We are all experiments.

However, we can learn from Lilo and Stitch that we need not be limited by our stories or background because we are more than these things.

We can choose the family, the friends, the connections that enrich our lives as much as we enrich theirs.

We can embrace the spirit of Aloha in terms of a way of being and of living. In so doing, we can recognise that our lives are filled with the comings and goings of family and the need to be thankful for their presence and their passing.

Aloha

Alan /|\

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