Soul… it’s that Disney/ Pixar movie all my dates should watch!

By notoriouslysinglegirl, January 3, 2021

Lost souls are obsessed by something that disconnects them from life.

-Moonwind, Soul

If you are afraid to die, then you gotta watch the movie Soul.

I loved this flick. I loved how the character 22 savored the simple things once she was on earth like pizza.

It reminded me of a guy I was “re-dating” in November 2020.

“What do you want out of life?” I asked my date as we sat at the edge of the Griffith Park Observatory watching the Los Angeles city lights flicker.

The Observatory is one of my favorite places in Los Angeles. It’s the place my dad use to take me as a kid. It’s where I learned about Tesla, Newton, and of course Galileo. It’s also where Rebel Without A Cause was filmed with actor James Dean.

“I want the good life” my date replied with a stoic voice and a flat affect.

“And what does that look like to you?” I responded with an air of confusion.

If anyone looked at my date’s life from the outside, his life looks picture perfect. The envy of anyone. He’s tall, handsome, runs his own company successfully, a loving father, and a homeowner.

Yet, on the night he tried to cancel our evening hike to the Observatory, he was morbidly depressed.

On our hike we passed a dozen wild deer grazing on grass. The moon was full. The weather crisp.

I reveled in all these simple things that I thought made our hike magical. Yet, my date was stuck in his head somewhere, lost in “I don’t know where land!”

“ I want to travel the world. I want to be in the pit at the Formula 1 races. I want….?”

Ouf… my psych nurse brain chimed in and said “ Delusions of grandeur?”

My date’s “obsessions” had disconnected him from life. He’s a workaholic, and battling many demons.

My heart aches for my date. I guess I see things differently. After working in healthcare the last 25 years, I know what death looks like. I’ve listened to many patients talk about their regrets as if I were their priest.

I know how to appreciate the little things that life has to offer. My health, the air I breathe, and the quirky things that make me laugh.

Spoiler alert : the protagonist in Soul eventually comes to this conclusion once he gets to “live” again and has his big piano debut.

What really matters in life are the little things.

Cheers!