@The Life of Pi

My husband, son and I went to see the movie,The Life of Pi, together. And what a treat it turned out to be for us. Each one of us taking something from the story. The Life of Pi is a fascinating allegory of what our true and basic nature is when we are confronted with self, death and the void. Who do we become and to what extremes will we go to preserve ourselves?
It was a very long movie but at no point did I believe the story was dragging. I wanted to feel every emotion the main character  Pi, felt when he was forced to confront his greatest enemy, himself, after surviving a horrific shipwreck only to be left marooned at sea for 227 days before he washed ashore in a place very distant from his homeland of India.
Our conversation began when I asked which story Pi told about his journey do you believe? To which my husband replied, "There is only but one story, the true story." Causing me to pause and think is that answer really true. Is there only one story or are there many interpretations of a story based on our beliefs and desires? And my thoughts were confirmed because each of us had a different take on the movie.
My thirteen year old son preferred the story of the animals and Pi. Preferring to believe in the fantastical journey Pi preferred to use as his truth to help him to understand and accept who and what he became in the face of the devastation and destruction. Agreeing he preferred the fantastical journey of Pi because he found it difficult to accept we could be so animalistic.
My husband expounding on the fact that we must always explore and come to our own beliefs about religion, life and thoughts rather being indoctrinated into something we do not understand. Explaining that Pi was actually the lion in the movie who had to become the wild animal he did not believe existed. The wild animal his father had shown him existed when they still had the zoo in India by throwing a wild goat into the lion's den. Despite his father's lesson, Pi still felt we all have a soul where we connect and cannot destroy each other for the sake of destroying each other. Once he was lost at sea, he had to confront the fact that when we are faced with a choice of survival or death, our true nature emerges - much more basic when we have no more layers to hide behind.
I took from the movie that life is about letting go. Surrendering to all that is and all that we will never understand. Having faith that we are where we are meant to be and the hope that if we are our true selves we will always be found and rewarded. Life is about saying goodbye - bringing closure to what was and when we don't we often feel like something is missing from our lives. My pain parallelling Pi's for the loss of his beloved mother. The one person he could not save. Could not rescue from death. And he did not have the opportunity to tell her goodbye. To tell his family goodbye. To tell them sorry for the choices he made.
I understood that pain and felt it deep within my soul. Awakening the fear and guilt I harboured inside me from the death of my mother. For not treating her well in her last hours on Earth. For not having the chance to say goodbye. For turning my back on her on the day of her death because I took her presence for granted. Never believed I would ever lose her because that was not what I had envisioned for myself.
Pi taught me that when we let go, release the demons that threaten to pull us down into the deepest darkest pits of our own void, that's when we are given the wings to fly. To begin anew. To grow. Letting go means having faith there is more than us as individuals out there. There is a greater force that keeps us all together. Provides for us all. And steers us where we need to go for the greatest lessons we will ever learn. The gifts and power of compassion, forgiveness and surrender in allowing us to understand so much more about who we are and what we are here to do. To embrace the miracle of our existence in a field interconnected in  more ways than we will ever know.
The Life of Pi is wonderful imagery of all the demons we face in an exaggerated way so that we can learn that life is all about faith, hope, trust and the belief that we are one no matter where we come from. Energy within energy. An allegory that challenges us to decide which story we believe. To question is there but one truth or are there many truths depending on where we are in our lives. The answer for each of us to decide.