Pursuit of Happiness

I rarely watch movies nowadays, even on the cable, but one memorable movie that strikes my interest is the 2006 movie Pursuit of Happiness starring Will Smith. The movie is a biopic of a successful stockbroker Christopher Gardner. The story line is excellent and Will Smith’s performance in portraying a man struggling to get out of the misfortune of his life is admirable. Of course in the end, after a grueling array of challenges to stay financial afloat, jaded and almost defeated, Gardner/Smith is able to reach the point when he already bagged the job as a stock broker. And on that point, Gardner/Smith said the famous sweet line: this is happiness.

Now, I don’t want to ruin my readers affection to the said film. Yes, it is true story of human spirit prevailing against all odds that was thrown at him; the haste to gain a slot in a charity building so he and his son can have a good rest; the misfortune of having to sleep surreptitiously in a rest room in a subway; the agonizing frustration to sell his device known as Bone Density Scanner that malfunctions when he makes a demonstration. Yet in the end, the sweet taste of success after passing a six-month training period without pay as a stock broker comes. Success, happiness and live happily ever after then.

But this is a film that only summarizes the travails of a human being and getting out of the rot. Another thing is that the real Christopher Gardner is still living and, of course, still has to attend to problems that are connected with his success and his life as well. Live happily ever after, probably yes if money is our basis – though wind of misfortune can still fall the good man Gardner. We can never tell.

The human journey has many points of junctions. They may arrive there happy or forlorn or even defeated. Yet, all of these will have to be left again when one goes to the next junction of his life. And again, he may arrive there happy, forlorn or defeated. These are the many life cycles in a human life span. This is the play of form in a nutshell. Nothing last forever. Even if it last your whole life time, it will still have to end when you meet Death.

Pursuit of happiness, play wisely the unfolding of forms while taking a first look of what that box you are sitting on while asking for external happiness keeps. You try to find it out for yourself.