Joe versus the volcano

Joe verses the volcano was on cable recently and it got me thinking. Funny how you can experience something when you’re very little only to have it reappear again and mean something so different, while watching this movie a few things stood out.

First he starts our story as a broken man, once fearless and develops into a hopeless hypochondriac. Second he is diagnosed with a ‘brain cloud’ which has no symptoms but will eventually make him drop dead. Third all of the women he runs into are all the same, all played by Meg Ryan (back when she was adorable). Fourth it takes getting away from his old life, his old assumptions about himself until he can finally be free and ends with him starting into the mouth of a volcano and jumping in, only to be spit out and finding out that there never was anything wrong with him, it was always all in his head.

Let us examine this story for some meaningful themes.

Our hero much like many others starts off broken and afraid of everything. Until his is liberated by a lie (that he’s dieing) this allows him to break free of his neurosis and just live without reservation.

He is told he has a brain cloud which is strictly speaking false but in a broader sense is completely true. He has allowed himself to get confused. He loses touch with reality, sitting at his desk, below ground; he trades his soul for safety. He allows his fear of change to prohibit him from truly living.

The truth (which is really a lie, but is more literally the truth) sets him free. He comes alive again; he quits his job, takes a girl out, brings her home (before she comically runs out on him for being a little too honest) and gets on a boat heading for who knows where. He opts for adventure and excitement he takes an uncharted path and in doing so finds true freedom.

Eventually he faces the volcano and tanks to some wonderful timing and the love of a good woman he jumps into the fiery inferno only to come away unscathed. He faces his fears, and comes out better.

It made me think about our own personal volcanoes and about the trials that we all must deal with about the brain clouds that inhibit us all. The road to true freedom is to push past all of our assumptions about life and simply live it, fully, and vibrantly and passionately. Just like Joe our everyman and his volcano.