07/22/2026
Ithaca, Wilson, and the Soul’s Journey Home
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is a treasure trove of powerful scenes that will haunt you long after the movie is over. The Hades segment will probably move some viewers to the core of shame and regret. Nolan nailed what he was going for with that one.
Some of the other scenes are very brief, but the meaning they convey reinforces the magic of storytelling in the hands of a modern master.
One such scene was Odysseus regaining his memory after being waylaid for seven years under the spell of the Lotus flowers and Calypso, and, with it, the purpose of his journey. He ropes together the planks from his destroyed boat and casts himself off on the tides and the will of the gods.
That scene - how it was shot - immediately made me half-expect to see Wilson once again along for the ride, and of another modern master storyteller and incredible acting performance, Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks, with Cast Away.
The parallels, the message, the lesson, and the connection. Both movies are much-needed reminders of why story and storytelling are. They always will be essential to the human experience, even in our current age of 24/7 digital access and the so-called wonders of AI. Nothing will ever replicate our innate need to connect and relate through our shared stories.
Nolan gets it. Zemeckis gets it. Spielberg does well despite his latest, Disclosure Day, going a bit sideways.
But getting back to both scenes showing the casting off to the will of fate and the long journey home, whether it be Ithaca or Memphis.
Both characters are pulled by the same force - love. Even after all the challenges, false paths, monsters, witches, and tooth extraction with an ice skate blade, there has to be an eventual return and redemption.
Odysseus had to break the allure and false love of Calypso. Chuck Noland had to release the false companionship of Wilson to the sea. On the return journey home, there are always painful decision points and sacrifices to what one knows to be true in one's heart.
That’s what we crave. The story of love and the journey “home.” It’s what gives us hope. It’s why we return to the essence of the same story, over and over again.
This craving is so powerful that Nolan’s adaptation of Homer's classic blew away all the divisive and opinionated noise that preceded it, and there’s a powerful lesson for our current state in that, in and of itself!
(spoiler alert) Even though Cast Away delivered an unexpected ending and not the happy reunion, you could still see the return in Chuck Nolan’s eyes in the very last frame of the movie, which I thought was ingenious and just as uplifting as Odysseus and Penelope chasing the setting sun to the West, together, in the closing scene in The Odyssey.
It’s why Jesus chose Paul, who also went on a bit of an odyssey across the Mediterranean, some 700 to 1,000 years after the time period of Homer’s poem. He, too, went on an epic journey in answering love’s calling through God.
Our community of shared story, love, and hope in the common good of the soul's journey always seems to come together around the collective campfires of our humanness. I thank God for the gift of the master storytellers of our time, in song, literature, and film.
May we always have the light of our Ithacas and the embracing warmth of the love and peace that awaits our return.
Thank you, Homer, Christopher Nolan, and Robert Zemeckis.
All have helped us recognize each of our own journeys home and to honor the homeward journeys to Ithaca and love in each other.
