We were sitting in the family truck when my mother asked me the all-encompassing question, “Do you have a passion?”
For a six-year-old who had never even considered the word, my response came easily, “I don’t know.”
My mother hadn’t known about her own passion either. Considering that her whole life was built around animal conservation, it seemed only fair to herself that her passion was within animal life.
The conversation couldn’t have lasted more than five minutes as my mother drove me to elementary school. But that question would stick with me for many years to come, until the release of Pixar and Disney Animation’s movie “Soul” in 2020.
Set in New York City, a near forty-year-old band teacher, Joe Gardner, aspires to be a professional jazz musician. When he dies suddenly, it becomes his goal to get back into his human body.
Along the way, Joe meets one of the first souls created, known as 22. This soul has grit, and does not want to go to earth, preferably this soul would like to “float in mist, do [their] Sudoku puzzles,” and continue a comfortable existence in the You Seminar: a place where new souls gain their personality traits and spark for life on earth.
*SPOILER ALERT*
Soul 22 and Joe Gardner are complete opposites, but these opposites are stuck together when a tumble through the soul dimension and earth leaves 22 in Joe’s body, and Joe… in the body of a cat.
When Joe is finally able to play as a professional jazz musician in his own body, he notices that the world has not shifted dramatically. While his dreams have come true, Joe really doesn’t feel all that different.
The supporting character, and professional jazz musician, Dorthia Williams, leaves Joe Gardner with one final story:
“I heard this story once 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 other fish, ‘That’s what you’re in right now.’ ‘This?’ says the young fish, ‘This is water. What I want is the ocean.’”
This story can be confusing for younger audiences, but the main idea is that people cannot spend their lives chasing some profound notion of passion, of riches, or of happiness or of love, people must live their lives fully and completely. Doing what they want to do each minute of the day.
The future is not ‘out there somewhere,’ the future is now. All we have to do is live. So, nearly twelve years after my mother asked me that all-encompassing question, “Do you have a passion?” I finally have my answer.
No. I do not have a passion that leads to every decision in my life. However, I do make conscious efforts to do something enjoyable for myself every day: writing, cooking, feeding my fish… all the small things or all the large things that cause joy in my life are far more important than the futuristic concept of a passion. My life is spontaneous in its joy, and, as Joe Gardner would say about life, “I’m going to live every minute of it.”