Thoughts on "Pursuit of Happyness"

 I probably won't be able to give this post as much time as I was originally intending for a topic of this nature, but let's have at it.

I watched the movie Pursuit of Happyness today. It was a touching tale of a man named Chris who struggles with family and finance and finally digs himself out of his hole through diligence and truth of character--who, like a human, made mistakes, such as recklessly investing his life savings into scanners, which he thought he could sell easily, and not upholding his relationship with his wife. But like a noble human, and like God as depicted in Christianity, sacrificed and toiled and suffered.

As part of his pursuit to become a stockbroker, Chris loses his home, his money, and his shoe (haha!). I think it's not fair to call these sacrifices, since these were taken from him involuntarily. But, Chris makes difficult decisions nonetheless. He sacrifices his comfort and leisure time, and dedicates the time he could have spent in self-pity and accumulation of resentment instead into diligent pursuit of the stockbroker job he desires, and in undertaking responsibility brought on to him by his child, Christopher--bathing him, feeding him, entertaining him, and, ultimately, raising him.

When he first stands in front of the stockbroker office, Chris sets a difficult goal for himself. He wishes to be as "happy" as the people coming in and out of the office. And though it is perhaps true in this case, as Dr. Peterson might suggest, that aiming for "happiness" in itself is not a tenable goal, Chris's admiration of other stockbrokers does seem like one heck of a motivator, and his goal of achieving happiness is concretely defined (as opposed to remaining one amorphous blob of desired actualization of potential)--he wishes to work towards becoming a stockbroker. And as Chris soon finds out, that is a difficult goal. At the same time, he is presented with the grave responsibility of raising a young, impressionable child.

I want to focus on Chris' goal--his vision of happiness, and the motivation that sparks within him a desire so strong that it pulls him at the crack of dawn to read his book, and to press his only shirt. When he is at the lowest point of his journey, the light from his life is taken, metaphorically as well as literally. When there is no light in the shelter, he inches toward it and uncomplainingly cracks open his study book at the crack of dawn, to take advantage of the sliver of light coming through the window. He invests his short supply of money into, sure enough, fixing the source of light within his scanner. His toughness of spirit, not only that inside him, but one reflected through active decision-making, shines through above all, making his success all the more deserved.

The plotline of this movie also reminded me of George and Lennie's paradisical and motivating plan to get their own piece of land in the novella Of Mice and Men (which I was coincidentally thinking about earlier today before watching the movie), and motivated me to reflect upon the role of pursuing happiness, rather than experiencing it, a concept touched on by Chris in the movie, and one that was touched upon implicitly, I think, by Steinbeck.

But, I suppose, more in-depth exploration of this concept is a work for another day.