I’ll tell you a secret. While everyone was raving about “Finding Nemo” when it first came out, I thought it was okay. I mean it was cute and all, but for some reason, I didn’t find it that amazing. As I watched “Finding Dory”, I was thoroughly engaged. Can she remember the information? Is the she going to find her parents? How will the the other animals help her?
Don’t ask me why I liked this one better (I still can’t figure it out), but after watching this movie, I learned a thing or two about love. Love doesn’t have to be simply with another person, it could be with work, your hobbies, your pets, or your passion for desserts. Love comes in many forms, shapes, and sizes, but it has many themes in common:
Warning— there are some spoiler alerts!
- Love is…patient. Though Dori suffers from short-term memory loss, Marlon, Nemo and the rest of the new gang does not get impatient while Dori tries to remember facts about her childhood. Instead, they simply try to encourage her to help her remember.
- Love is… spontaneous. When Marlon and Nemo are out of the water and needs to go back into the ocean, even Marlon, the extra uptight father, could not plan what to do next. Instead, he asks himself “What would Dori do?” and figures out a spontaneous way to keep him and his son alive by jumping through the water playgrounds.
- Love is… the little things. Throughout the whole movie, Dori keeps remembering how her mom likes purple seashells. The seashells are the little things that brings her back as her mom lays them out to create a path back home.
- Love is…sacrifice. Though the octopus absolutely does not want to go back into the ocean, he sacrifices himself when Dori and the rest of the animals get stuck in the truck and is taken away from their homes. He risks his chances of going to the aquarium to save everyone.
- Love is…unconditional. Though Dori does not find her parents for many years after losing them, they reconnected with the same love they have for her since she was born. All the worry is gone because they know that when she returns, they will love her just the same.
Of course, there’s much more to love which is deeper within us, but sometimes, we need to focus on the basics before we can say how much we love something or someone.
Cheers to finding love and your peanut butter!
