Dan goes on to compete in tryouts for the pommel horse since a teammate has been injured. He does amazingly well, using the “take out the trash” technique and simply focusing on what he was doing:
“I wasn’t worried about what might happen, what could happen, what did happen, I just got up there, and I cleared my mind, and I was flawless,” is his report about practicing the “emptying the trash” for the first time. He was totally focused in the present and what was happening at that moment, with no thought about how it would/could affect the future. He simply enjoyed and focused on what he was experiencing right then.
Later in the movie, Dan has a breakdown in regard to how his training’s going, and his final words in the argument are, “When I get what I want, then I’ll be happy.” He’s referring to the Olympic gold medal he’s been training for his whole life. And then he walks out the door.
(What strikes me at this point is, If you love doing something, why does it have to be a competition? Why not just do it and enjoy it? Why does everything have to be performance-based? I mean, Dan remarks about his love for gymnastics that he’s been on a trampoline since he was a boy because he loved it.)
Dan ends up getting in a motorcycle accident, shatters his leg, and the news from his doctor is that, “with some hard work, you’ll eventually be able to walk again.”
This seems to throw all his dreams of that Olympic medal out the window.
Sitting on the lawn at school, Joy, a friend of Socrates’ and someone who Dan has met before at the gas station, stops by to talk to him. During the conversation, she makes the comment, “I know this is a scary moment for you. Are you paying attention to it?”
In other words, “Are you focused on this moment? Where is your mind? Are you taking out the trash and being present?”
Once Dan goes back to visit Socrates (it’s been several weeks), one of his tasks is to come up with an insight worth sharing. After some interesting attempts, his eventual realization is that, “There’s never nothing going on. There are no ordinary moments.”
In other words, every moment is extraordinary; all you have to do is focus on it and pay attention to it.
Thus, there is no such thing as “One Shining Moment,” for every moment is “shining,” regardless of how much “spotlight” may be pointing at it. All you have to do is “take out the trash.”
In the final scene of the movie, these thoughts are narrated right before Dan finishes completing his Olympic qualifier routine:
Socrates: “Where are you, Dan?”
Dan: “Here.”
Socrates: “What time is it?”
Dan: “Now.”
Socrates: “What are you?”
Dan: “This moment.”
He goes on to complete an amazing series of flips, and you almost get the impression that he does it, not for the gold, but for the simple enjoyment of performing the movements...
this has got some great stuff. love it. -tar.
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