Happiness is Being Thankful

This weekend, my wife and I took our 6 year old daughter to our parents, and we went for a much-needed get-away to a bed and breakfast for an overnight.

After dropping her off, we decided to see a movie before going to a romantic dinner, that my wife had planned for us at the inn.

We decided to see "The Pursuit of Happyness," the new film starring Will Smith, and his son Jaden.


Going into the theater, I must admit I was not optimistic of seeing anything powerful, moving or redemptive in this story (I kept having bad flashbacks of "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air," "Independence Day," and "Men in Black," which made me cringe a bit as I stood in line for popcorn).

I tell you what though- this is a powerfully moving, and poignant story!

In "The Pursuit of Happyness," Smith is a twenty-something lower middle class medical equipment salesman struggling to make ends meet and provide a home for his son and impatient wife. The scanners he is trying hard to sell, though aren't selling, and soon his wife gets fed up with not having money to pay the bills and leaves him and his son to move to New York.

Just when he thought things couldn't get worse, a couple of his medical scanners get stolen, parking tickets pile up, and the taxman seizes his bank account, and he and his son get evicted from their room for missing rent.

Then he finds the opportunity to train as a stock broker intern- WITHOUT PAY, in hopes that he would be the best of the class and get a job. So for those long months, he and his son trek across town on buses every day to and from work and daycare, and by night they wait in line at the shelters and soup kitchens.

Then, he gets a perfect score on the exam and is offered a position as a broker in the firm, which he accepts with a tear in his eye.

All the while, he never quit, he nurtured his son, and worked constantly to better himself, and build a career that could provide for him and his son.

As I watched this moving story with my wife, I was both humbled and sobered. Here I am grousing over running out of crackers and cheese in the middle of the week, as I sit in my comfortable four-bedroom single home, with two nice cars in the driveway, clothes in the closet, and food in the refrigerator, while folks like this man struggle to make enough to afford a place to live, clothes to wear, and food for them and their family to eat.

"Where is the justice??" I kept asking myself. Why do so many of those who "have" take it for granted and go through so much of their lives groaning over ultimately insignificant things, while so many who do not have, toil and labor each and every day just to survive??

Yet, so many of us "haves," (and yes, I do include myself in the "haves," because I have far more than I need or probably deserve) try to rationalize and assuage their guilt and discomfort with their own self-centeredness and greed by saying the poor and needy "just need to work harder," or "pull themselves up by their own bootstraps," or "stop taking so many handouts," etc, etc...

Let's face it- there may well be a good number of poor folks who could work and try harder to lift themselves up, but there are at least as many "haves" who have benefited from privilege and advantages from their family position, social status, or even skin color- yet we don't like to talk about that in the "haves" circles- too uncomfortable.

We're also often much more comfortable with giving a pittance of a few dollars from our ample income to send to some far away place to help buy a few crusts of bread, or to donate clothes or items that we would otherwise put out in the trash- just don't ask us "haves" to get involved in helping the needy in our own community- no- that is too close to home, and meet involve actually personalizing and putting actual names and faces on the poor. That would mean we may actually have to reexamine how we live, and feel the need to make some substantive changes in our own lives. That would be too much to ask...

I am being a bit facetious, of course, but there is also truth in these words, I believe. I point not only to "haves" in general, but to myself, and changes I need to make in my own life and how I relate to those in need.

Jesus said in the Gospels, "As you have done to the least of these, so you have done for me." It has also been said, give a person a fish- feed them for a day, TEACH a person how to fish, feed them for a lifetime.

Let's recommit ourselves to "teaching others how to fish," (i.e. helping people get back on their feet, and providing for themselves).

This week, explore opportunities for helping others help themselves in your community- it may be getting involved with a project like Habitat for Humanity, volunteering at your local church, or through the United Way, mentoring kids at an after school program, or a job-training center. We can ALL make a difference, IF we really want to and are willing to commit ourselves to helping others in a genuine, lasting, and substantive way.

Peace,

John