"I see dead people." Who could forget the first time they heard this chilling confession from Cole Sear to his supposed psychologist, Malcolm Crowe, in M. Night Shyamalan's big hit? It may be odd, but these famous words entered my mind just a few days ago as I sat on a train bound for Salt Lake City. "Why?" you ask. Let me explain. What do you see in the following picture?
If you've seen Pursuit of Happyness, you know that the man depicted in this photo is Chris Gardner, a father who has literally been beaten down by circumstances in life that seem outside of his control. I observed several, similarly haggard expressions in the faces of those individuals surrounding me on the aforementioned train ride and couldn't help but think, "I see dead people." I'd even be tempted to add, "They're everywhere. They only see what they want to see. They don't know they're dead."
By now, you know of course, I’m not referring to "dead" in the literal sense of the word, but more so in a figurative sense. I'm not exempt from my own analogy either. As it was New Year's Eve that day, I had been reflecting on events that took place in 2011 and was preparing to write a particularly catchy country song :) My year in review? My best friend moved away, I moved back in with my parental units for the first time since high school, I returned to school and experienced the stress of accruing large amounts of debt for the first time, my car broke down during the very first week of school which led to an unexpected and expensive repair, my dog died, and...I got dumped, like twice...by the same guy :) Basically, 2011 wasn't my favorite year and I'm pretty sure my own facial expression didn't exactly offset the ambiance that had been created by my fellow passengers. As I scoured the faces of the people on the train that day and thought about my own experiences, I understood Cole Sear's words in a new way. Sometimes we only see what we want to see in life and refuse to acknowledge the moments that could bring us so much joy if we would only open our eyes.
Chris Gardner says the following at one point in Pursuit of Happyness, "It was right then that I started thinking about Thomas Jefferson on the Declaration of Independence and the part about our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And I remember thinking how did he know to put the pursuit part in there? That maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue and maybe we can actually never have it. No matter what. How did he know that?"
I think it's safe to say that we are all pursuing happiness in some way; however, it seems we will always be stuck in that pursuit if we don't find a way to be happy now...no matter what the circumstance. I've written about this in previous posts and I'm sure I'll be writing about it again at some point, but this experience made it apparent, once again, how important it is to choose to be happy now. President Gordon B. Hinckley said, "It is not so much the major events as the small day-to-day decisions that map the course of our living." While addressing the same topic, President Uchtdorf stated, "So often we get caught up in the illusion that there is something just beyond our reach that would bring us happiness: a better family situation, a better financial situation, or the end of a challenging trial. The older we get, the more we look back and realize that external circumstances don’t really matter or determine our happiness. We do matter. We determine our happiness. You and I are ultimately in charge of our own happiness." How grateful I am for my blessings, whether obvious or obscure, and for the opportunity I have to choose each day to be happy now.
