JUST KEEP SWIMMING- PART 1

Now I don't know about you, but growing up Finding Nemo was that animation everyone but me had watched, that is until very recently when I finally crossed that milestone but it does make me wonder. What do you think the creators of Finding Nemo considered when they put its plan on paper and ink? What do you envision they hoped to convey to the public through their tale of a lost clown fish and his paranoid father? Evidently, with Dory's just keep swimming, it has a lesson on the importance of persevering especially when things seem as unredeemable as being captured for food or endangered domestication, but, my dear reader, I am assuming you know we simply cannot settle for such a general, on-the-surface lesson as that.

We must dig deeper, and when we break the surface, we acknowledge the irony in sharks turning vegetarian, which I assume represents in one way or another members of all the typical stereotypes that defy society by rejecting ghastly norms as natural as eating like the carnivores that they are. As is becoming unnervingly common with my generation, being different shows a lot of bravery -nevermind the lack of necessity, arrogance and ignorance which can be a consequence at times- in being able to speak your truth. Of course, knowing the fish's tale, you can only see the good in sharks to eat as they did. Why? Because being a cartoon, particularly for kids, it rightly teaches that one should not harm one's neighbours, thus, the biology behind a shark's need for flesh and blood is irrelevant.

We also witness the mental warfare most parents battle everyday in simply letting their children live, particularly something unpleasant that said parent may have had a bad experience with in the past. Naturally, some would prefer to remove the chance of physical, mental or emotional harm entirely in order to keep their children safe from the pain it results. By now, I am quite sure you are learned enough, dear reader, to know that attempting such isn't ideal. You must have watched enough movies, read enough books, and heard enough different versions of the matter to know it never works out the way we think it would. You must know that without pain, there really can't be joy, and in the same manner, when one is protected from every form of harm, the person is also protected from every form of life which is made of lessons that makes an individual as he or she is. A flower requires both sun and rain to blossom, and a piece of shapeless clay must be carved and beaten into a masterpiece, this is a fact. Now I am not saying you are a flower or a shapeless lump of dirt but I'm sure you understand the analogy I'm going for here.

Look at us. A generation, a world run on technology and isolation; shackled by our conveniences, we forget day by passing day what it truly means to live in a wholesome and content manner. We forget and pay good money to continue to forget every loss, every heartbreak, and every devastation that is vital to the growth of our mental health, peace and joy. We numb the bad and in doing so, we numb the full extent of the good as well, and then we wander the world unfeeling to any and everything that really matters, never truly satisfied and wondering what went wrong. Fortunately, the sharks and Nemo's dad, Marlin, are not the only ones with life lessons to be learnt in this incredible animation.

There is Dory's unwavering kindness, effortless innocence, and infectious personality; there is the cruelty of man in stealing from earth and giving nothing in return; there is the immaturity in peer pressure and even the fierce devotion in a parent's love, but those aren't what we will discuss today. Instead, we'll consider something present from the beginning till the very end. Something that is the only reason Nemo could have ever been found in the first place. Something beautifully indispensible to both character and plot development, and though it is relatively an on-the-surface topic, it is still one with the ability to make or break a person, a nation, or in this case a fish. You've probably guessed it haven't you?

It is camaraderie or at the very least something remotely close to it. It is love in a society if you will, caring about complete strangers, lending a helping hand, and being a good friend to society. It is looking out for people you don't even know and having their backs, expecting nothing in return. And it goes without saying that without it, there would be no Nemo to find neither will his father have survived long enough to do the finding in the first place. From Dory, the only one to offer comfort in Marlin's time of distress, to the mostly unhelpful vegetarian sharks, to the hilarious school of fish that protected Dory's honour, to the rad turtle dudes, to the seagulls, and to every creature that helped in some way. A chain of strangers, a community that helped for the sake of it, spreading the news and making it possible for Nemo to return home safely.

That, dear reader, is what rings true to me. The undeniable truth that we do not live for ourselves but in fact do so for each other. I for you, and you for me, connected and drawn to one another in more ways than we can possibly imagine. A word, a thought, a mere deed in the right direction can change tides and pull down mountains, and that my friend is the power in community, the strength in true camaraderie. Now, we may never know if this is truly one of the things the creators of Finding Nemo hoped to convey but it does raise another question: What do you think of a world where we look out for each other? I think it would be beautiful, but what about you? Would you help find Nemo?