The Heart's Waystation

Felix Sophos, a well-read philosophical counselor, opens his practice with the grand ambition of solving life's problems through wisdom. Reality soon knocks him flat. When he tries to use Kant's categorical imperative to decide whether a client should lie, or Nietzsche's philosophy of the Übermensch to motivate someone to lose weight, the results are often laughable, sometimes sending clients storming out. His own life is just as chaotic: his clumsy attempts to apply philosophical strategies while courting Emily end in failure, he is helpless against his mother-in-law's practical “blows,” and even his friend Karl, a caustic cynic, is better at enjoying life in the moment.

Felix realizes that the philosophy in books is ill-suited to the messy reality of everyday life. Inspired by parables full of Eastern wisdom from his grandfather, such as “The old man loses his horse” and “Cook Ding cuts up an ox,” he awkwardly begins experimenting with a blend of East and West: using existentialism to talk about freedom, Confucianism to explain responsibility, utilitarianism to weigh gains and losses, and Daoism to find peace of mind. But a midlife crisis, the mystery of his origins, and financial pressure soon pile up, nearly crushing him. An ordinary moment of enlightenment, perhaps the birth of his daughter, perhaps a moment spent sweeping the floor, lets him experience the idea that “the Dao is found even in piss and shit.” True wisdom isn't up in the clouds, but right beneath our feet...