Back in August I had a chance to hear Aileen Bennett speak at the NAMS (click here) conference in Atlanta. Her speech, her dialogue with the group was riveting and got eveyone all abuzz. Since then Aileen’s become a better friend and I’ve grown to love her message more. But it wasn’t until I watched “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” that part of her message clicked for me.
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(If you haven’t seen Nick and Norah, don’t worry I won’t ruin it for you. But I would suggest watching it free on demand with Netflix and then coming back to read this.)
On the surface Nick and Norah is a romantic comedy along the lines of “Say Anything”. Some will not want it compared to such a classic but both reside in the “grunge romantic comedy” section of Blockbuster.
The Destination or The Journey
If you delve a bit deeper, you’ll see that Nick and Norah is really a story comparing two things: the destination vs the journey. Throughout the entire movie Nick and Norah flip back and forth between the sheer joy they will have listenting to their favorite band, Fluffy, and the frustration that goes along with finding their drunken friend (to which they must sacrifice said joy). It’s a masterfully written story where both the protagonist and the protagonist are foils of each other.
So I go back to my friend Aileen. During her talk, she conjured the image of a woman walking to the park with her kids. You can picture this woman trying to briskly walk to the park while the kids keep stopping to pick up rocks and look at bugs. All the while she’s telling the kids “hurry up so we can get to the park and you can play”.
Do you see the parallel yet, the reason why months later I recall Aileen’s speech while watching Nick and Norah? Getting to the park might be the quest. Finding Fluffy might be the goal. Getting 10,000 visitors per day to your blog might be the day you plan to take a breather. And finally getting all your kids out of diapers might bring a smile to your face.
But life, and fun, and joy happens on the way to the park – not just when you get there. That’s what Nick, Norah, Aileen and your favorite teacher were trying to tell you all those times. I command you to find joy today. Make your own happiness be today’s goal.
In the end, when Nick and Norah find out they missed part of the Fluffy show, Nick adroitly says “We didn’t miss it. This is it.”
