Living vs. Surviving: Wall-E and Paula Poundstone
One of the great joys in my life is the NPR show "Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me". In addition to listening to it on the radio when I can, I also subscribe to the podcast. This week, they had a best show. This one, made up of parts voted by the listeners, featured Paula Poundstone sounding off to Michael Palin. He was making the point that some foods may not actually qualify as food.
Paula defended Ring Dings as something that made her life worth living. After some back and forth she made the statement, " You may know a lot about food, but you don't know the first thing about living, buddy."
That statement resonated with me, probably because all week I've been watching the movie Wall-e, which has just become one of my favorite filmis of all time. Any sci-fi film that successfully interweaves a Broadway musical (like "Hello, Dolly) grabs my attention. The scene that thought of is when the captain of a spaceship is arguing with the auto pilot saying,"I don't want to survive, I want to live."
As we go through our lives, I think it is important to recognize if we are just surviving or if we are really living. Sometimes living is messy or even painful but sometimes that can lead to real joy. Would we all live longer if we avoided food like like Ring Dings? Sure, but would that be a life worth living? I'm willing to shave off a few years for a joy like that.
Paula defended Ring Dings as something that made her life worth living. After some back and forth she made the statement, " You may know a lot about food, but you don't know the first thing about living, buddy."
That statement resonated with me, probably because all week I've been watching the movie Wall-e, which has just become one of my favorite filmis of all time. Any sci-fi film that successfully interweaves a Broadway musical (like "Hello, Dolly) grabs my attention. The scene that thought of is when the captain of a spaceship is arguing with the auto pilot saying,"I don't want to survive, I want to live."
As we go through our lives, I think it is important to recognize if we are just surviving or if we are really living. Sometimes living is messy or even painful but sometimes that can lead to real joy. Would we all live longer if we avoided food like like Ring Dings? Sure, but would that be a life worth living? I'm willing to shave off a few years for a joy like that.
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