Are you surviving or living?

A Disney movie released in 2008 remains relevant today.

A few weeks ago, while watching Disney’s “Wall-E” with my daughter, I was touched by a quote spoken by a character named Captain B. McCrea. His spaceship, the Axiom, had hosted humanity for centuries, far removed from Earth, which was left uninhabitable.

The Axiom’s passengers had become largely sedentary and dependent on automated systems—sound familiar? The captain was complacent, content with the robotic routine of ship life.

Then, Captain McCrea learns of Earth’s past beauty and potential for life through Wall-E’s recordings and a plant that a robot brought back from the planet he had never stepped foot on. After these revelations, the Axiom’s hostile built-in artificial intelligence takes over the ship and tries to prevent it from returning to Earth, stating to the captain that “on the Axiom, you will survive.” In response, Captain McCrea defiantly declares, “I don’t want to survive! I want to live!” He had snapped out of his complacency after realizing that the life they had been leading on the Axiom was not truly living but just surviving. A yearning for a life with purpose, interaction with nature, and real experiences rather than the monotony of an automated existence flourished within the captain.

Shifting from complacency to curiosity, courage, and a desire for something more meaningful than mere survival, leads Captain McCrea to make the decision to return to Earth, challenging a long-standing protocol that kept humanity in space. It's a turning point that encourages the crew and passengers to rediscover their humanity, their planet, and to take responsibility for their future.

Are you merely surviving or are you living? A new year, full of possibilities, is quickly approaching. I choose to live. Who is joining me?