The Pursuit of Happyness

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

As you know, these words are out of the Declaration of Independence. They are also right out of a movie we went to see tonight. The Pursuit of Happyness starring Will Smith is a movie worth going to see.


The movie is based on the true story of the life of Chris Gardner(pictured here) who literally lived on the streets of San Francisco with his toddler son while pursuing a job as a stockbroker with Dean Witter. Somehow he made it.

In fact, he made it big time.

This is one of those movies that causes one to think. And, as I have mentioned before, that has to be a good thing.

It is interesting to me that the Declaration of Independence does not promise us the right to be happy. But it does say we all have the right to pursue happiness.

There is a difference.

In my opinion most people are not pursuing happiness. In fact, I think the majority of people are not in the pursuit of anything. Most people are living their lives just to get by and have pretty much thrown the towel in on their unalienable right to pursue happiness.

They go to work, come home in the afternoon and sit in their chair and watch television. They get up the next morning and go to work doing the same thing and come home in the afternoon and do the same thing.

They live with people they don’t even like and pretty much make everybody around them miserable. Maybe they have been knocked down so many times that they finally have given up.

As a lifelong undertaker, I am keenly aware that we have only one shot at this thing we call life. And we are absolutely nuts if we are not pursuing happiness with everything that is in us.

Pursuing happiness means actively building relationships with other people. Pursuing happiness means doing things that will make others around us happy. Pursuing happiness means spending quality time with our children and our families. Pursuing happiness means trying to be the best we can be at whatever it is we have been asked to do. Pursuing happiness means having a sense of humor so that others enjoy being around us. Pursuing happiness means giving to those who are less fortunate. Pursuing happiness means working harder than everyone else. Pursuing happiness means making sure we have balance in our life. Pursuing happiness means having priorities in life. Pursuing happiness means we are relentless in our attempt to understand the true meaning of life.

In my opinion, pursuing happiness is finding out what God put us on earth to do and going after it with every fiber of our being.

The message of the movie we saw tonight was that the pursuit of happiness comes with blood, sweat and tears. It is not a defensive lifestyle as most people lead, but a lifestyle of being on a mission.

None of us have an unalienable right to be happy. The truth is there will be many times when we are not.

But we do have the right to pursue it.

I think this time of the year is the perfect time to step up the pursuit.