The Persuit Of Happiness

Watching the movie “The Pursuit Of Happiness”. You know the one with Will Smith as Chris Gardner, alongside Jaden Smith as Christopher Gardner, his son both on and off screen. The one movie I have to admit where they both played an outstanding role together.

“The Pursuit Of Happiness”, hit our screens in 2006. I heard all the hype but it was only after I watched an episode of Oprah where Chris Gardner himself was a guest, enticed me to watch it. So tonight, as I watched this movie, and having seen it before, was very much still effected by the story. I remember very well that intensity of humbleness and gratefulness the first time I watched, and how nothing should be taken for granted…

So 14 years later, while flicking through the channels saw it was the 8pm movie for the night, and knew i had to watch it again. Once again without a doubt, this profound story had me as it did the first-time round, touching not only my heart but also reaching down, pulling from the depths of my soul. The intensity 1,000 times more than I ever felt.

That overwhelming thought of how this man could wake up each day, though when you watch you notice how little sleep he actually gets. How he starts and ends each day filled with motivation and the will to endure every day with insane determination to survive. For him or for his son, or for both of them… His survival mode dictated his every thought and every move and always with good intentions and honest heart, even at the worst of worst times.

If you haven’t seen this movie, I would urge you to immediately. Yes, it will pull on those heart strings, and hit you hard with a reality check. Go watch it.

So in a nutshell here is brief overview, though I know my summary of this movie will not do it any justice.

It’s a real-life tell all story, of a man Chris Gardner, who having lost everything and I mean everything. With the undying love for his son after his wife left, through determination, builds himself up by doing an internship as a stock broker for 6 months without earning 1 cent. That’s the pre-happy part of the movie, because before he got to that decision of being an intern and through those 6 months, it was gut wrenching hard.

While watching it you feel your heart reaching out in agony because like I said no one can endure that much… Yet he did because he had perseverance, Vision, determination and gumption.

Tears streaming down my face as i think to myself… How sick you feel at how we complain about our lives.. after watching such a movie.

We do, don’t we? I mean every little thing, just seems to bring on an emotion of unhappiness or irritation. Or we feel unsatisfied and disillusioned and expectations so high, even the things that once made us smile or appreciate, we simply oversee it and miss those little gifts.

I honestly don’t blame us feeling this way, not completely. I’m also not saying it’s ok to feel like this. I’m just saying, we unfortunately are living through dark times. Like that single brightly coloured flower growing out of the concrete jungle pavement. You can’t miss it, it’s there, in all its colourful abundance so why are we missing our little abundant moments, filled with colours that help us through our grey clouded minds?

… because we are pushing at full steam ahead and not stopping to take note. Moving too quickly to notice the little things in life.

Something to be said about Chris Gardner. His rock bottom hit rock bottom over and over and over again. He still showed positiveness, lived it and breathed it and so much so you can’t help feeling overwhelmed and exhausted for him. Not once did he show anyone how defeated he was almost feeling and not once did he complain or blame anyone for where he was in his life. In actual fact if you think about it, would he have been driven to be a stock broker, if he wasn’t in that desperate place of his life. The constant perseverance of taking every opportunity to convince Jay Twistle played by Brian Howe, the man driving the red sports car who was the man behind the motivation to become a stock broker. He just wanted that Interview, to show Jay Twistle never judge a book by its cover.

You see not only was Chris Gardner, motivated and a positive force to be reckoned with but was blessed with an above average IQ, which he knew but again very humble about it. Not only first in his classes at school but in everything he took part in or put his mind to. It was the Rubik’s Cube and ride in the taxi with Jay Twistle that convinced Twistle he was worth interviewing for that internship, to earn that type of money to drive his own red sports car.

Obviously it wasn’t about the sports car but he knew when he owned one it would mean he was set on his life and money would not be an issue.

Money has become our motivation and that’s not a good or bad thing. Generally bad, because money, whether we agree or not, is evil and motivates the wrong people to want money in the wrong way. However, it’s also good because we can use it to motivate us in a good way, to work hard, to persevere and to strive at being the best we can be.

It’s all we want in the end is to be the best we can be… We just have to find the good behind the evil. The perseverance, motivation and strength behind the judgement, criticism and negativity we face everyday.

Find that strength and nothing can stand in your way.

Chris Gardner

xxx

Westworld… Reality of a alternate world

I found a new series – Westworld…


A combination of The Matrix and A Million Ways To Die In The West. Basically, and very slim on the details as I just started watching it. remember The Matrix where humans are actually controlled by alien type machines, our reality is engineered and for example our usual day to day of waking up and off to work, come home, family time and sleep is actually us laying in a cocoon-like chamber connected to this machine that with our body temperature creates energy to exist and live in our reality that doesn’t exist. Mind-blowing, I know…


A Million Ways To Die In The West, it kind of reminds me of it because of all the eccentricities and crazy in the movie, definitely has the same eccentricities of Westworld. I could add a few more but these stood out. 

So, imagine you enter a world like partaking in a game or acting in a movie and live in this world as if you always belonged the crazy part is the inhabitants of this world have no idea it’s all a game for the wealthy to live to the fullest. They have carte Blanche too do as they please, which of course involves murder, rape and carnage… so predictable of us humans. Forbidden fruit that’s why. 

Each day the inhabitants awake to the same day, with the same dialogue, going about their same routine but with very different endings… Groundhog Day situation. The visitors/guests interact with the inhabitants and are free to do whatever, whenever and to whoever. Some of the guests are either lonely or bored or they prefer this alternate world, in some cases the visitor falls in love with the inhabitants and visit as many times as they want. Going back to fulfil the same role they chose to play or go back each time changing that outcome each time, good or bad. The inhabitants never remember the visitors, so every encounter is a first encounter. One of the visitors regularly visits to consistently cause harm and torment. So, think 50 First Dates where Adam Sandler spends every day reintroducing himself to his love Drew Barrymore because she has short term memory loss. Well this is the same concept except the Adam Sandler part is played by an evil man who rapes and torments her on every meeting, him remembering every previous time and her in shocked oblivion because of her non-existent memories. Yes, it’s a generated world with inhabitants who aren’t real, but they don’t know this so every event is reality to them. 


You wonder when reality and this alternate-world begin and end. There is always that fine line in life especially when you are given too many options, like having your cake and eating it too except the one is more tantalizing then the other. 

It’s actually quiet an interesting concept that this series is based on and I wonder if our lives would be less chaotic and free of disaster. Imagine satisfying our cravings through an alternate world, always coming back to our actual reality and in this perfect world there would be constant peace and harmony… but for how long?

Human nature, the constant battle between good and evil. Ever evolving opinions and mindset that has no limits. There is no control so what’s after the alternate world when we become bored and need another craving satisfied.

Of course, all good things come to an end as you watch this interactive amusement park fall apart. Visitors that don’t want to leave the alternate world, a trigger-happy cowboy who shoots dead all the inhabitants of the town ending the day with other visitors not having anyone to interact with ruining the experience for them. Or the glitch that the inhabitants are beginning to either malfunction or start remembering. Where the daily routine of their scripted lives are beginning to change the more they remember the past visits or visitors. Imagine remembering you dying over and over again, murdered by the same person every time in the most brutal way? Or the inhabitants with full recognition warn the other inhabitants… chaos and turmoil on every corner. Literally. 

We are the beginning and end of our lives, of who we are, and always having choices and the freedom to decide where we want to be. We choose what is right or wrong, which means we have to take responsibility for ourselves, because we can’t go blaming machines or aliens or people controlling our thoughts on alternate worlds like Westworld or cocoons like The Matrix. 

In the meantime, I will sit captivated by Westworld and the concept that intrigues my senses and keeps me wondering.

I’m just saying
Xxx

The Start of Something New…

A beautiful struggle was and still is a phrase given to me by my fondest love attachment of divine intervention.  Which has now become the beginning or rather relaunch of my blog.

“Our scars make us know that our past was real” Jane Austin – Pride and Prejudice

My love for writing has been my saving grace, my world to escape to and my therapy for my scars, but as with the old blog I used it as my platform for a bit of rage and humour.  That is all behind me now so very therapeutic indeed.

A beautiful struggle is my inspiration of life, love and everything that is good.  Tired of the negatives of negatives and the bitterness that prevails.  Newsflash ‘misery begets misery‘ how does no one remember this.  I literally have cut out the unfavourable that bring me down, the pessimists who live in denial and the lost who dwell in the anxiousness of their own doing… They handed me the scissors that I used to snip snip snip.

“Off with their heads” Queen of Hearts – Alice In Wonderland

I have lived and breathed the anger, hatred, regret, etc etc of life’s cruel sense of humour but it was still down to choices I made so in the end who can I blame… and that was it!  The moment you realise that you just can’t blame anyone so why wallow in that pity party of doubt. 

Hence “A Beautiful Struggle” was born and perfectly said, the Struggle was real but the outcome, finding God and being able to find and live in the highest power of being which Is love … well that is Beautiful!

I’m Just Saying