The Pursuit of Happyness

"So, I’ve been thinking about this whole being happy thing, and I feel like people get lost when they think of happiness as a destination. We’re always thinking that someday we’ll be happy; we’ll get that car or that job or that person in our lives that’ll fix everything. But happiness is a mood, and it’s a condition, not a destination. It’s like being tired or hungry, it’s not permanent. It comes and goes, and that’s okay. And I feel like if people thought of it that way, they’d find happiness more often."- Julian, One Tree Hill (Season 8, Episode 8 - Mouthful of Diamonds)

So after catching up on One Tree Hill yesterday and enjoying a quite eventful Florida State game, I must say I agree with the statement above.  Happiness isn't a destination, it's a simple emotion, one that people seem to take for granted (especially when you're a football fan).  Sure the Seminoles didn't play the greatest game yesterday, but we still won.  How many times have you gone to a game and observed the crowd, watched their actions, listened to their words?  Many times during the game people cursed at how the team(s) was/were playing, they cursed the refs for bad play calls (but when it's the ACC [Another Crappy Call] how could you not?), they cheered profanities when other teams lost (i.e., Florida, Georgia, etc).  Once the team(s) started showing progress their attitudes started to change, "oh look we're finally catching the ball" or "it's about time our defense showed up."  Then the play that changed it all, with 3 seconds left on the clock we had Dustin Hopkins in for a 55 yard field goal attempt (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz74KhnQDQo).  Redemption.  Not just from last weeks game (where Hopkins had a wide-right kick that helped UNC win), but for the loss last year at Clemson where Christian Ponder separated his shoulder.  Look at how the fans reacted.  Moments before several of us were holding out breath, praying for the win.  The kick was good, screams of joy pursued, but how long does this happiness last?  By Wednesday most of us will be over the high of the win, thinking about how we need to beat Maryland this upcoming week and how NCState will need to lose in order for us to play in the ACC championship game against (insert team here, most likely Virginia Tech).

How can we, as life-long fans go from one extreme emotion to the other in the span of an hour of football playtime?  Doesn't it seem like we handle life in the same fashion?  Things go well, we think we've hit our destination of happy, then wham!  One bad thing happens during our nature high of happiness and the whole world crumbles.  Why do we let our selves think that from that time forward it'll all be down hill?  Shouldn't we still be happy and thankful for everything we have?  Shouldn't we still praise God for the day he's given up?  These material things that surround us don't matter in the end, football games, like last night's won't matter in 5 years.  Yes, we'll look back and say "remember that one time...," but will it truly matter then?  It's just a memory, it's not the present or the future.  Going back to the video, watch it again.  What was the first thing Dustin did after the kick was declared good?  What were the first words Jimbo said in the interview?  How many people missed this while they celebrated a ball, made of leather and air, and people, who are just like them, only they display their talents every week?

To answer the questions just asked about the video, Dustin points up to the sky, most likely giving thanks to God for what had just happened.  Jimbo says in the interview: "It's like we said the good Lord has, he does things for reasons, that he tested us and for Dustin to get that opportunity again, for our kids to enjoy the victory of what they just went through, how to preserver it's tough.  I mean we've lost two of these in a row and they keep coming back, it says the character of our football team."  I thanked God as I celebrated with my friends, but I'm sure a great crowd missed this opportunity to praise him for the good, happy time we're going through.

Moving on, but staying on topic, while reading PostSecret like I do every Sunday afternoon I came across a postcard that helps sum up today's post:

It's when we're happy with our lives that the good things happen, the soul mate, money, success, etc.  We can't let anything get in the way of our own happiness, and if we do we need to stop, rethink how we're living our lives and give it all to God.  He does things for a reason and in time (with prayer and study) he will provide what we need, when we need it.  In the end, everything is on God's time and not ours, right?

I keep feeling like these posts have turned into rants, please let me know if you agree and I'll see what I can do about fixing that.  Also I'm going to try and prepare a bit more for my next post, which will probably be later this week before I fly up to DC for the Maryland game (and awesome hangout time with Mallory!).  By the way, the title was to throw you off, haha, this post has nothing to do with one of my favorite Will Smith movie's of all time (yup, I'm definitely using this time as a plug for the movie :)).  Speaking of Will Smith, I think I might use him in my next post...