Filmmaker Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mall Rats) took to facebook Thursday to air his poetic thoughts on the secret of happiness, the pursuit thereof, and why we all need to notice that in the present, in the chase for “happiness,” we are actually the happiest. We’ve already won, people.
“The good news is that the pursuit of happiness is way better than being happy any day,” he says. “The irony is that actual happiness blasts us across our faces, necks and chests all the time – but we’re so busy chasing the elusive notion of what happiness is to us at that moment, we tend to overlook the authentic bliss we create for ourselves and others in the process of simply trying to be happy,” Smith writes.
The 44-year-old writer/director/actor sounds like he may have turned the corner on some interesting realizations about life, and we’d have to guess it has at least a little something to his latest film project, Yoga Hosers, a yoga superhero movie starring his yoga-loving daughter and her pal, Johnny Depp’s daughter.
In yoga, we’re encouraged to bring our consciousness to the present, to realize this moment is where it’s at, where the good stuff lives. As much as we know it, we often forget it, because life keeps moving and our brains keep swinging like a pendulum to the past and the future. We love how Kevin Smith summed up what a lot of us need to be reminded of when we insist on seeking something – happiness, contentment, etc. – that’s actually right under our noses. (You don’t even need to smoke a doob to agree.)
Here’s his full post via facebook:
I’M NOT HAPPY…
I’ve been around 44 years now, and I’ve been a round boy for most of those years as well. I always imagined thinner people were happier than me – but after losing 80 pounds, I can’t say that I’m any happier than I was as a fat-ass. I’m not complaining, mind you: I just imagined I’d feel differently. I imagined I’d know a different kind of happiness than I’d never known before. Instead, I wound up learning what I consider to be the Secret of Happiness.
As an American, I was raised to believe I was entitled to 100% happiness, all day every day, until I died. But in our Declaration of Independence, we’re granted only the PURSUIT of happiness –
not actual happiness. The founders of this country were smart not to promise the tired, the poor and the huddled masses yearning to breathe free too much of a good thing.The good news is that the pursuit of happiness is way better than being happy any day. The irony is that actual happiness blasts us across our faces, necks and chests all the time – but we’re so busy chasing the elusive notion of what happiness is to us at that moment, we tend to overlook the authentic bliss we create for ourselves and others in the process of simply trying to be happy. And by the time we realize these were, in fact, moments of happiness, it’s too late: those moments are now memories.
Happiness can’t be bottled. It can’t be smoked, swallowed, shot or ejaculated. And there is no end game: you never cross the finish line and are suddenly happy. Even when all your wildest dreams come true, you still pursue happiness.
Thankfully, human beings are at their happiest when they feel they’re at their most productive. So the only real happiness is the pursuit of happiness. When we chase happy, we feel our best. Life is about the journey, not the destination – so while the idea of happiness sounds great, it’s actually the pursuit of happiness that provides the most contentment. And in that pursuit, we are ultimately at our happiest.
Forgive my stoner ramblings and sorry for stating the obvious. But sometimes, you just wanna remind people they’ve already won.
——
Earlier…
