The wisdom here isn't about relentless optimism—it's about the terrible clarity of having no better option. Dory's refrain captures something deeper than motivational poster sentiment: when you're genuinely lost, in dark waters with no map, the only rational choice becomes acceptance of forward motion itself. A person recovering from addiction, for instance, understands this intimately—sobriety isn't always a triumphant march but rather the disciplined choice to move through one more day, one more hour, because standing still in that particular current means drowning. Stanton understood that survival sometimes demands we stop asking "why" and simply commit to the next stroke.