In Director Shawn Levy’s Free Guy, Joe Keery plays genius video game designer Keys, who lives in his familiar coding world of 1s and 0s. Jodie Comer plays Keys’ game coding partner, Millie. Life arises in Keys’ code. Ryan Reynolds plays Guy, the NPC (Non-Player Character), in their highjacked video game Free City. Millie embedded her artificial intelligence (AI) engine in Guy. In their Free City, game characters evolve, become more human, even sentient with the AI.
In Free City, Guy and his NPC buddy Buddy, played by Lil Rel Howery, pass Molotov Girl singing Mariah’s Fantasy on the street. Guy comes to life. He says, “That’s her… She’s my dream girl, Buddy!” Again, Guy is Keys. Millie is Molotov Girl. Love arises in Keys’ code.
In the Free Guy epilogue, set in the newly created game world of Free Life, Millie as Molotov Girl and Guy reunite. Their sweet relationship has eloquently transformed. Millie has fallen in love with Guy. Guy tells Millie, “Don’t live your life in a loop.” You don’t have to do the same thing, over, and over, and over again living life in the background. Guy says, “I love you. I always have. I’m just a love letter to you…” Finally, Millie gets it. Keys is in love with her. She is in love with him, too. Millie comes to life.
We all come to life for what or whom we love. Just saying.
In the Facebook series Tom Versus Time, GOAT (Greatest of All-Time) NFL Quarterback Tom Brady described spirituality as, “…your deepest purpose. To live it through sports makes perfect sense to me.” Tom’s first love was football. As a kid, he fell in love with the game watching NFL Quarterback Joe Montana play in the Super Bowl.
Tom comes to life playing Quarterback, playing football. He’s the most present, most self-expressed doing what he loves. His Supermodel wife Giselle Bundchen laughed in agreement, “Football is his first love.”
Tom played in 10 Super Bowls, winning 7. Tom said, “It [football] allows me to be who I am in a very authentic way.” Football for Tom is Aikido for me. I’m the most present, the most freely self-expressed training and teaching Aikido. I come to life.
Growing up at home, I was never good enough for Dad. I never knew what I did or didn’t do that made Dad so angry with me. As a child, my predictable future was: I’ll never be enough.
Years later, I trained with the late Mizukami Sensei. He taught me Aikido. Sensei generated space for me to invent my greater-than versions, the ones that he saw, that I didn’t yet distinguish. I was free to be me. I had nothing to prove. Sensei said, “Just train. It’s not like you have to get somewhere.” Sensei became the father I needed to be a good man, the greater-than version of me. I came to life.
On New Year’s Day Aikido practice, Ishibashi Sensei promoted me to Godan (5th degree black belt). Mizukami Sensei taught both Ishibashi Sensei and me for over 25 years. After practice, I told Ishibashi Sensei, “Thank you.” He said, “It’s from Mizukami Sensei. He wanted to promote you before he passed.” I felt that to my soul. Mizukami Sensei always gave me life. I came to life with him. I believe that I gave him life, too.
In homage to Mizukami Sensei’s profound legacy, I give life to others, whether that’s in Aikido or outside the Dojo. Sensei gave me life. He gave me love. Now, I give that life and love back to others. Sensei lives inside of me.
In the bigger picture, we’re all born into this world wanting to leave it a better place than when we came into it. The world isn’t all about me. It’s about others becoming the best versions of themselves. So, I give others life, what Sensei had done for me. I generate space for them to invent their greater-than versions. Sure, they still have to put in the work. Grind it out. Just train. Make it work. They can come to life, too. Just saying.
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