The Purpose Myth
"What the hell is water?"
This question haunts me whenever I watch Pixar's Soul.
Not because it directly references David Foster Wallace's famous fish parable (though remarkably, it does). But because both confront the same truth: the meaning we desperately search for already surrounds us.
We just can't see it.
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You Are Not Your Purpose
Joe Gardner thinks life begins after achievement.
Middle-school music teacher with jazz pianist dreams. He believes existence only matters once he reaches his singular ambition – playing professionally with saxophonist Dorothea Williams.
"My life's purpose is to play."
This isn't just Joe's delusion. It's ours.
We swim in a purpose-industrial complex. Finding your "one true calling" has become both spiritual commandment and consumer promise. Follow your passion. Do what you love. Find your purpose.
These mantras bombard us daily. The message is brutally clear: until you discover and fulfill your unique purpose, you're merely existing, not truly living.
What if this entire framework is wrong?
Happiness Lives in Unexpected Places
The barbershop scene destroys everything Joe believes.
Joe (temporarily inhabited by soul 22) visits his barber Dez. During the haircut, Joe assumes Dez was "born to be a barber."
Dez corrects him. He wanted to be a veterinarian. His daughter got sick. Vet school became impossible. He became a barber to pay medical bills.
Joe, trapped in his purpose mindset, assumes misery.
Dez shatters this instantly:
"Whoa, whoa. Slow your roll there, Joe. I'm happy as a clam. Not everyone can be Charles Drew inventing blood transfusions."
Later: "That's the magic of the chair! That's why I love this job. I get to meet interesting folks like you...and make them handsome. I may not have invented blood transfusions, but I am most definitely saving lives."
Three sentences demolish our purpose mythology.
Dez shows us four truths:
Happiness exists beyond your original dream
Meaning appears in unexpected corners
"Lesser" vocations fulfill as deeply as prestigious ones
Connection creates purpose, not just self-expression
This isn't a throwaway scene. It's the film's philosophical center.
Help someone break free from the purpose trap
Achievement Creates Emptiness, Not Fulfillment
Joe achieves everything. Feels nothing.
Playing piano with Dorothea Williams should transcend. Music beautiful. Audience engaged. Performance flawless. The moment he sacrificed everything to reach.
Yet afterward: "I've been waiting on this day for... my entire life. I thought I'd feel different."
Dorothea responds with Wallace's parable, recontextualized: "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.'"
The crushing revelation hits Joe like gravity.
He's been swimming in the ocean all along.
Life wasn't waiting to begin after his big break. Life was teaching students. Connecting with neighbors. Feeling wind on his face. Savoring pizza. Noticing autumn leaves falling on New York sidewalks.
His purpose wasn't jazz.
His purpose was being alive to every moment.
Get essays on finding meaning in the ordinary
Meaning Exists in Ordinary Moments
Soul offers an alternative to purpose-seeking.
Through 22's journey in Joe's body, we experience ordinary moments with fresh senses – pizza taste exploding. Lollipop wrapper textures. Barbershop camaraderie. Subway grates felt through shoes.
These aren't distractions from purpose. They constitute it.
When Joe sees his life memories flow before him, achievements vanish. What remains: moments of connection, wonder, and presence.
The "spark" isn't talent or career but capacity to find meaning in existence itself.
This isn't spiritual bypassing or complacency. It's recalibrating how we measure life – not by résumé but by presence, not by achievement but by attention.
You Create Purpose Through Attention, Not Achievement
Purpose-obsession blinds us to water we already swim in.
Like Joe, we postpone living until some future state – career success, financial stability, creative fulfillment. We treat now as merely instrumental, stepping toward our "real" purpose.
We miss the ocean for the water.
Purpose isn't discovered. It's created through attention.
Meaning isn't waiting in future achievement. It exists now, if you could only see it.
Dreams change. Priorities shift. Circumstances intervene.
The constant isn't what you do but who you are each moment – how you attend to experience, connect with others, find wonder in ordinary.
As Dez demonstrates, happiness isn't life going according to plan. It's being fully present to whatever arrives – expected or not, glamorous or ordinary, your "purpose" or just your Wednesday afternoon.
This is water.
This is the ocean.
This is life.
Look.
P.S. I'm working on a series exploring how different films and stories challenge our cultural narratives about success and meaning. If you've found value in this perspective, there's much more to come.
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