Soul, the price of life, and Lamborghini Moments

We watched Soul the other day – the new Pixar movie that tackles some of the toughest questions of life cloaked in the comfy blanket of being a family film. A middle aged jazz musician is at a crossroads, choosing between pursuing his passion, and “selling out” to be a high school band teacher when suddenly he dies, is on his new journey to the Great Beyond, isn’t ready to give up yet, and winds up inspiring a to-be-born soul to embrace life herself.

It was filled with great music, and was a visual delight, but the thing that really got to me was a line I can’t remember, but the concept is staying with me. It was based on a Bill Hicks quote: “I believe the cost of life is Death and we will all pay that in full.”

And I started thinking about getting the best value for the price. I’m a big fan of bargains. Those red markdown price tags at Target always suck me in. But there is no reduced price for any of us in what we pay for life. You can’t get a discount on death. It’s a one-price-fits-all kind of thing.

But if we’re all going to pay the same price in the end, maybe the bargain comes on the other side, where we get the most value for the price. And that’s something that we all have in our control. If I told you that you could pay $1000 and either get a Lamborghini or a Ford Fiesta, and the choice was entirely up to you either way, which would you get for your same thousand dollars?

(to be fair, I don’t think I could handle a Lamborghini – I’d probably crash it in the first week, and be stuck with a huge insurance bill and no car. I think I’d go for a Jaguar i-pace. But for the purposes of this thought experiment, we’ll call it a Lamborghini).

So we all have the same cost – death – but it’s completely up to us what kind of life we get for that price.

A really simple life practice would be to ask myself in the morning whether I’m going to live a Fiesta or Lamborghini life that day. And before I go to bed at night, review what kind of car I bought for my money that day. And to each day have at least one “Oh my God, I can’t believe I get to be alive for this,” kind of Lamborghini Moment.

The cost is the same, but we can fill up our lives with those high value moments of really being alive and tasting the joy of being able to breathe air, and feel love, and experience Bach, and hug friends, and read Harry Potter… that’s what a bargain looks like in the end. Being able to look back and say, “damn, that was completely worth the price. It was a bargain.”

I’ve tried to live my life that way, fitting in as much living as possible. But now I have something to quantify it. Lamborghini Moments are going to be my new Thing that I Strive For. How many Lamborghini Moments can I fit into one hour, one day, one week, one month, one life?

So that’s a heady lesson to get from an animated movie, but you never known when big life concepts will hit you, really.