One of my favorite scenes in the movie Finding Nemo is the whale scene where Marlin and Dory find themselves swallowed up and in the belly of a whale. They both experience the same “key moment” yet have a completely different response.
Marlin has lost all hope at this point and believes he will never see his son again. He is responding from a paradigm of fear. It is hopeless, the focus is on what he can’t do, he focuses on blame and making excuses. Dory on the other hand responds from a paradigm of integrity or choice. She looks at the situation as “half full,” she focuses on what she can do — such as speaking whale, she is optimistic and has faith that all will be well. As the whale makes noises, Dory acts as interpreter. Dory tells Marlin the whale is telling them to go to the back of the throat. Marlin says, “Oh, yeah! Of course he wants that – that’s called eating us!” Frustrated the fish aren’t doing what he suggests, the whale lifts up his tongue to try forcing the fish to where they need to go. Dory lets go, but Marlin hangs on for dear life!
DORY: (interpreting) He says, ‘It’s time to let go!’ Everything’s going to be okay!
MARLIN: How do you know? How do you know something bad isn’t going to happen?
DORY: I don’t!
Marlin pauses, closes his eyes and finally lets go… within seconds they are blasted out of the whale’s blowhole and safely delivered to the destination they’ve traveled so far to find.
There is SO much I love about this scene. There is so much revealed in the dialogue and beliefs of Marlin and Dory. And there is certainly a spiritual undertone. It takes great faith to let go. “How do you know something bad isn’t going to happen?!” You don’t … and it is time to let go, it is time to exercise faith.
One more insight … consider the whale representing God. The whale didn’t just tell the fish where and when to let go. When the fish stubbornly refused, the whale lifts his tongue to PUSH them in the right direction. That’s God. He can be trusted to PUSH us in the right direction if we are stubborn and allow our fear to be stronger than our faith.
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