It's been a long time since I've watched Pixar movies. I decided to have an entry for this animated Pixar movie, Soul. I have a lot of takeaway from the story which really inspired me to do this post. In the movie, I had some realizations.
[! SPOILER ALERT]
In Pixar Animation Studio film “Soul,” Joe Gardner is a middle-school band teacher whose true passion is playing jazz. A single unexpected step sends him to the cosmic realms where he finds the “You Seminar” - a fantastical place where Joe is forced to think again about what it truly means to have soul. These are some of the life lessons or my realizations from the movie.
1. Sometimes, we chase extraordinary moments that we forget to appreciate the ordinary ones.
A valuable life lesson that Soul has to teach us is to appreciate all the little moments that life has to offer that happens in between big moments we plan for ourselves. It could be finding joys in little things like a walk in the park, inhaling fresh air, real conversations, bonding with family and the feeling of barefoot in the sand. Some things that could make you feel alive. These little things make up the bigger picture of what life is just all about. Moments that could make you appreciate being alive. Seldom, we chase extraordinary moments that we forgot to live in the present. The little things in life is what makes it worth living. To appreciate what we have, rather than spending our lives chasing all the things we don't have. In the movie, Dorothea Williams told Joe Gardner about a story that goes...
Dorothea: I heard this story about a fish. He swims up to this older fish and says, “I'm trying to find this thing, they call the ocean.” “The ocean?” says the older fish, “that's what you're in right now.” “This?” says the younger fish, “This is water. What I want is the ocean.”
2. You don't always need a purpose to be alive.
Soul explores many of our existential thoughts such as: Why are we here? Why were we born? What makes life worth living? Seldom we define ourselves on the things we're good at. We find purpose in life by defining ourselves on the things we had to offer. If you're good at music, you're a musician, If you're good at painting, you're a painter and so on. We always thought of these things as our spark, the one purpose in life that if we don't have achieve, our life feels meaningless. When in fact these things like our hobbies, passion, career, talents etc. These are all parts of the grand scheme of things in life. In the movie, Joe made everything to escape the Great Beyond in order to go back to Earth and fulfill his dreams of playing piano with Dorothea Williams, he thought if he can do it, he reaches what he thinks the pinnacle of his life. Later that night after playing the piano, he went home not feeling satisfied. He thought, all his life and existence is all about for Jazz and Music. You can always dream, but never let yourself be consumed of chasing your ambitions and doing your craft that you end up losing yourself in the process.
3. You only have one life or soul, make it count.
In the movie, what I admire about Joe Gardner is that he's determined to chase his dreams of becoming a musician. Just like what he said: "There are many possibilities, you just need to know where to look." In life, change is always inevitable. One day, you land on a great job or opportunity and then you died on the next. You never know the timeline of your life is. Need I say more?
