December
2006
Pursuit of Happyness?
I watched this movie the other day (The Pursuit of Happyness (intentionally spelled that way)), and Will Smith’s character said something in the movie that triggered my questioning. He said something like,
“How did Thomas Jefferson know to put in the Declaration of Independence that we had the right to pursue happiness? That happiness is never just handed to us. We can pursue happiness, but never really have it completely.”
I never thought of happiness being something that we could never fully have. When I thought about happiness, I always focused on the thought that happiness is the ultimate human desire, and it could be achieved. I never envisioned happiness as something we had to pursue, as if it is a life long battle to keep happiness consistent throughout our lives.
I struggled to discover why I was so drawn to this quote and why it sounded so profound to me, despite my initial disagreement with it. I came to a verdict that this quote is in fact true. Despite how “glass half emty” it sounds, it is true if you look at the world completely in a different way. We can achieve happiness (like I originally, and still do, believe), but we can never have happiness completely in our lives. I originally thought that this meant we could never have complete happiness (which I couldn’t bring myself to agree with). Looking at it in a different angle, I recognize truth and something I do believe.
There will always be times in our lives that we will not have happiness- it’s only natural- and we have to pursue it, to gain it back. We’re not just born with happiness. It is something we have to strive for. A common source of happiness comes from family and friends. We’re not just given family and friends, we have to pursue a family and friendships. Along with our happiness from these sources, there are times when they won’t bring happiness and they will dissappoint us- but it’s not because of them, it’s because of certain situations that challenge and face all families and friends at one time or another. However, in general- which is how I always looked at the achievement of happiness- I believe it is possible to gain complete contentment and satisfaction in life. Yes, it’s true we have to work to gain our desires, and sometimes it can be a long haul before we even feel any happiness in our lives. But even when we do achieve it, we have to protect it (just as how Will Smith’s character said about dreams “You gotta dream. Protect it.”) there will always be times where life just doesn’t seem to go our way, but we have to just see these times as challenges of our life long pursuit to keep satisfaction within us.
P.S. Watch the movie its was really good. There were some slow parts, but the overall the message was very inspiring, and the little boy was adorable!
