What is your true purpose in life?
We're always asking these kinds of
questions to ourselves, but I think this one has already been answered many
times. But still, a lot of people struggle with this thought. Young and
old. This question of purpose.
These hard yet important questions are
explored in Disney & Pixar's latest animated feature film called "Soul"
which stars Jamie Foxx as our protagonist, Joe Gardner, and Tina Fey as 22.
Yes, 22.
If you haven't watched the film, I
shall warn you that there'll be spoilers. If you're okay with that, proceed,
but if not, it's best to not go any further.
---Spoilers Ahead---
Soul follows
Joe Gardner, a passionate jazz piano player, who finally gets the gig of a
lifetime...but in a blink of an eye, he finds himself dead and heading to the
so-called Great Beyond.
I like how his death is so sudden
because that's how death is actually. At one moment, you're having the time of
your life, and then the next, you're gone. I don't want to be so glum here, but
that's how the film portrayed it. He was talking to someone on the phone,
excited to share the big news, until *poof* he fell into a
manhole. It was that quick! No dramatics.
It all went upside down. It was
literally a shift of atmosphere. Very otherworldly. I believe we would react
the same way when Joe finds out he's dead. We watch him panic in this escalator
leading to the Great Beyond as the other dead souls get "zapped" in
the Great Beyond; like a fly heading towards a fly zapper.
We watch Joe try to claw his way back
to Earth, and he falls out of order, and lands in The Great Before.
It’s where souls are created and are prepared 'til they are ready to be sent to
Earth. They have to go through tests, be sorted a personality, and find their
spark. In order to find their spark, they’ll be guided by a mentor, who's lived
and is successful on earth, until the soul finds a career (soccer, writing,
etc.) that’ll give them this spark. Spark here is defined (or as seen by Joe) as
their passion, their meaning, or purpose in life.
Joe discovered he can get back to earth
by getting an Earth Pass. The new souls earn it when they find their spark.
This is where he meets 22.
To be honest, I found it fresh and
fascinating to meet someone like 22, who has no interest in living on earth.
She's called 22 because she's the 22nd soul to be born in The Great Before, and
obviously, she's been staying here for a loooooong time. The problem is she
hasn't found her spark yet and she had already been under many great mentors
like Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi, and Muhammad Ali. I guess that's when she decided
that living on earth isn't worth it.
Both 22 and Joe's journey are equally
important to follow as it tackles the hardest and important questions in our
lives.
22 represents those who still don't
know what they want to do with their lives, who are stuck or utterly lost. It's
those who feel like they don't have a sense of purpose.
When 22 got to experience a glimpse of
what it's like on earth, by accidentally landing in Joe's body, she realizes
that it's not that bad. With Joe's soul stuck in a cat's body, the duo has to
find a way to switch back before Joe's big gig.
After hours of experiencing life on
earth, 22 wanted to stay longer, that perhaps she can find her spark here
rather than in The Great Before. She even thought walking and eating pizza
could be her "spark", but Joe turned that down instantly, saying that
it's just "everyday living".
But when Joe and 22 were caught and are
brought back to The Great Before, 22 surprisingly got her Earth Pass.
Remembering what Joe said, 22 was hurt and let Joe have it instead. Joe
didn't realize that he has become one of the many mentors that turned 22 down.
She gradually became obsessed with the thought that she actually has no
purpose.
It hit me really hard when Joe goes
back again to The Great Before to help 22, but only to find her consumed by her
obsessed thoughts. How Disney and Pixar made this scene was impactful. You’ll
find 22 in a dark sand figure, ad inside 22 is surrounded by mentors, including
Joe, in forms of sandy silhouette kind of monsters. They haunt her, repeating
what they've told her; that she has no purpose.
The real Joe tries to reach out to her,
trying to tell her that he and those mentors were wrong, that she deserves to
live, that she has a purpose. It brought tears to my eyes.
A lot of us nowadays have this constant
fear that we're not good at anything, that we even feel like imposters somehow.
We have this constant need to validate that we're meant to do things, that we
are useful.
When we receive negative comments and
criticisms of our work or our actions, we start to feel small, and sometimes,
during dark times, we start to question our choices and purpose in life. This
scene is a dedication to those who feel small and nothing. It's a reminder that
we all have a purpose in life that we shouldn't listen to what people or our
negative thoughts say about us. They are lies.
Sorry, I got a little bit emotional
there. *sniffs* Phew. Okay.
Let's get back to Joe.
Joe’s journey is similar to 22, but he
has a spark. He is driven to get his big break in the jazz industry. He's so
hooked to finally get on stage and perform with big jazz artists in front of a
huge crowd.
He finally got to experience it, and he
expected to feel...different. But in reality, he didn't feel it. He felt the
same. He was ecstatic to perform and get this chance, yes, but after that,
nothing out of the ordinary.
Dorothea, the big jazz artist he
performed with, noticed and said this famous quote: "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 young fish. 'This is water. What I want is the
ocean.'"
That little story
can't be told any better. I am guessing a lot of celebrities or successful
billionaires can relate to it. No matter what, we will always be chasing
success, we will never be satisfied with what we accomplish. That young fish is
looking for the ocean when he is already in the ocean, but he thinks that's not
true, that he's not in it at all.
Life is not always
about success.
At the end of
Joe's journey, he realizes he should stop chasing, and start living. To be
happy in the now. To not always seek content in success, but to be content in
the now.
It's truly nice to
have these two souls, these two characters, meet. Both have different stories,
but share one thing about life. Our spark, our passion or ambition, is not our
sole purpose in life; our purpose is to live life.
As it sums up in
the last famous lines of the movie:
Jerry asks, "So what do you think you'll do?
How are you gonna spend your life?"
Joe says, "I'm
not sure. But I do know...I'm going to live every minute of it."
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