To Be or Not To Be ... Happy? :-)/:-(

I just finished reading David Burton's memoir, 'How To Be Happy' after just having also watched Simon Pegg in 'Hector and the Search for Happiness' and 'The World's End', both movies about a quest for Happiness.

I didn't buy 'How To Be Happy' or watch the two movies above for tips on how I could "be happy", as I don't buy into the "happily ever after" lifestyle pursuit, as I believe that to be a mug's game, which will lead to unhappiness and disappointment.

'Hector and the Search for Happiness'

I only watched 'Hector and the Search for Happiness' because I had been watching Simon Pegg in 'The World's End' where... 
SPOILER ALERT...
after a suicide attempt Gary King (Pegg) decides to round up the lads and have another crack of "The Golden Mile" of pubs in a pub crawl they failed to conquer in their youth.
And I was only watching 'The World's End' because of this recent trip to Hobart and what I encountered there, as I wrote in this post -
Room at the End of the World?

'The World's End'

'The World's End' is the better movie of the two in my opinion when it comes to exploring the "happiness" question.

'Hector and the Search for Happiness'

Not that trying to be happy is a bad thing, but for most people that's like searching for the next drink, because if one can take the edge off the pressures of life, then maybe eleven more will bring on Nirvana, right?

'The World's End'

Happiness can't be found in the bottom of a glass, it is found within.

'The World's End'

And don't get me wrong about alcohol, as I like a drink just as much as the next guy, but I know that if I'm looking for drink to make me happy and be a trusty servant to bring me that happiness, then I'm heading down the wrong path. 

'Hector and the Search for Happiness'

Most people use drink as a coping mechanism to get through life and most alcoholics use it as a sort of pseudo-suicide attempt on a life they wish they could get out of.

Of course, alcoholism can eventuate from peer pressure and other social factors, as well.
But for most it is a way to try and cheer themselves up in a life that can be frightening and rather cheerless and disappointing. 

'The World's End'

But chronic drinking can only end in much more misery and disappointment than the life the drinker is trying to escape in the first place. 

'The World's End'

I only picked up David's book because I had listened to a talk at the Byron Bay Writers Festival that he was in called 'Growing Up', which featured Magda Szubanski, Rosie Waterland and 

Mandy Nolan, as well. 
Magda Szubanski, Rainbows, The 2016 Byron Bay Writers Festival, Jung and Synchronicity

The 'Growing Up', talk at the BBWF, 2016

With the exception of Mandy Nolan, all three other speakers had thought seriously about, or had attempted suicide, which is something I also have in common with them.
So, it was on that basis alone that I bought all three speakers' books (although I had already bought Magda's book to read anyway, apart from her talk about suicidal thoughts she once had).

'Hector and the Search for Happiness'

David doesn't pretend he knows how to live "happily ever after" in his book ... and for a very good reason, because "happily ever after" is just a myth in reality, which it is why you'll find those three words at the end of most fairy tales. 

'Hector and the Search for Happiness'

The thing about the movies I write about above, and the books mentioned also to a certain extent, is the need to find happiness through other people's acceptance of you, as a person. 
Which is something everyone has to struggle with in life, no matter what sexual preference you prefer ... or think that you prefer, whether straight, bi, gay, or celibate.
But that search for happiness was more about being happy and accepting who they really were as people and not living a lie, rather than how other people were going to accept them.
Which is more about overcoming a fear (major as that fear seems to be) and finding relief in not having to live in that fear anymore, which is not to say they will live "happily ever after", or even walk around in a permanent state of Nirvana like the Dalai Lama seems to ... and let's not forget that Buddhism is based on seeing through the illusions of this world, so maybe the Dalai Lama's laugh is just another mask worn by a sad old man putting up one more illusion for the followers of illusion?-)

'Hector and the Search for Happiness'

The search for happiness is a Fool's Journey, which is not to say it isn't a journey worth taking, but a state of constant happiness would be a bloody boring life in my opinion.

Life is an adventure made up of all the emotions like anger, joy, sadness, love and fear and they all play their part in leading a "happy life".
Gratitude for all the things that are right in your life leads to a much happier feeling, than wishing for something to make you happy.
The Power of Gratitude
I would rather lead a grace-full life than an unhappy life searching for happiness.
I don't think we were put on earth to be happy all of the time ... or at all for that matter.
I think we were put on earth to love and learn ... and that can be a rather painful and difficult path for every one of us, because as cliché as it sounds, everything really is connected.  

The true quest in our lives rather than a search for happiness should be a search within to find out who is behind the mask we have made and let other people make for us our whole lives.
And I think that is what all three author's books I bought at the BBWF were all about really, and that is a quest worth being on, I think.
Go well, as Dave Burton would write in his book, and try to make sense of the life journey that is individually unique to each of us, but in some way, all connected, as well. 

'The World's End'

'The World's End'

Physician, heal thyself?

I guess that's what led David Burton to the arts on some unconscious level, that we all have a part to play and a story to tell?

Mary? Marian? The divine feminine? Intuition?

Marian? Mary? Intuition? The divine feminine?

Is that a 'Sisters of Mercy' shirt on Gary King's chest?-)

Be you? St Mary Rose Quartz. Be-you-tiful?-)

"Curiously, the shape of a rosary laid flat on a table (a circle with a line and a cross jutting out) forms the astrological sign of the planet Venus (which is also known as the Morning Star, a common epithet of The Virgin), the goddess Venus, and now the female chromosome.
They speculate that we are dealing here with an ancient pagan symbolism rendered Christian by local context and elaborate processes of interpretation, devotion, and official spinning spread out over centuries." 

Venus? Mary? The Morning Star?

The above passage was about the Fatima visions in Portugal and from the Jeff Kripal book, 'Authors of the Impossible', a book that is well worth reading in my opinion.

I also thought it was rather "coincidental" that I mentioned a book by Graeme Simsion titled 'The Rosie Project' in my post about Rosie Waterland, who shared the stage with David Burton in the 'Growing Up' talk at the BBWF -

Rosie's Chicken Soup for the Soul

And that book is about a guy with Aspergers syndrome pursing the "perfect" partner, while in David's book, 'How To Be Happy', David talks about growing up with twin brothers who have Asperger's, as well. 
Not only that, but Graeme Simsion's book and David Burton's book are both published by Text publishing. 
So, I guess you have to ask yourself, as I do, is everything connected in ways we don't fully see from where we play our part in life, or like the Dalai Lama's constant smile, is it all just an illusion and trick of the mind?-)

And in case you were wondering, I'm as straight as an arrow when it comes to my sexuality, which unlike David Burton I've never had to question, but of course we all question and wonder just who we think we are ... or should.
Great book Dave and ...
Go well on your journey.