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Life of Pi | Day 170 of my 2023 Journal

Cecilie Conrad·Jun 20, 2023· 3 minutes

🇩🇰 Also available in Danish 🇩🇰

I watched Life of Pi in the cinema with my oldest daughter when it first came out. At the time, the other children were small, and going out to watch a movie was one way to give her some mom time.

The movie is visually beautiful, the story overwhelming, an adventure, and a tragedy. The unlikeliness of it all and the dreamlike colorwork makes for a great adventure to enjoy in the dark with popcorn. The twist makes you think.

I will not spoil the movie for those who have not seen it; I will share some thoughts as we just watched it again.

In the Swedish vacation home, we get to explore old technology like VHS, DVDs, and CDs. To my children, it is like a tech museum.

In the DVD collection was Life of Pi. This beautiful production truly makes you think. About what reality truly is and what stories we want to live with. I

I have touched upon this before, how our view of life, our filter in many ways, consists of stories, and the nuances we get to pick up are led by story elements. The characters, the vibes, the settings, the plots, and the developments. What can you imagine? Exactly that will be your limitation.

In the story of Life of Pi, it might be a coping mechanism as well; creating a better story is a way to emotionally survive a challenging situation.

The question is: Do we always do that? And is the so-called reality of the challenging situation more True than the way we choose to see it?

What is the difference between the narrative as a coping mechanism and deep understanding?

I am afraid the mainstream idea of reality, the scientific point of view, and what can be measured, documented, photographed, and counted somehow has gained an unhealthy status.

In contrast, the emotion of it, the vibe, the adventure, the Force, the long dotted storyline, and the Meaning and Signs tend to be something hippies in purple clothes talk about while serious people laugh.

In my field of expertise, storytelling, imagination, perception, and being is at the center, and nothing can be measured.

So, here I am, voting for the first and most beautiful story of Life of Pi.

What happened was the boy and the Tiger survived; what happened was the beauty.

This is the truth.

A truth much higher than any tragedy, as it is the story about religious tolerance, about talking to God, about respecting all living, about the loss of all hope and giving yourself to God, about odd chances and stars and whales, about getting to know extremes of your being and keep walking through life, even after harsh elements of the journey; and about love.

In this way, Life of Pi is about everything that ever mattered and about what it is to be human and how to cope with it.

Love and light

Cecilie-Underskrift-300x133

Cecilie Conrad

🇩🇰 Also available in Danish 🇩🇰 

Thank you for reading
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Unschooling and Parent consulting, conversations, blogposts, and podcasts on family life and learning

Hi, I'm Cecilie Conrad. I'm a trained psychologist, mother of four, radical unschooler and full-time traveller. I have lived with unschooling for over a decade and help other families find their own path – whether it is about homeschooling, unschooling, or the bigger question of how you want to live as a family.

I offer guidance, conversations and talks. I call my work grandmothering – not coaching in the traditional sense, but presence, professional insight and concrete help navigating motherhood and finding your way home to your own values.

Am I the right person to help you? You can book a free discovery call, and we'll talk and figure it out.

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I share my knowledge and curiosity about family life and learning in my two podcasts.

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