I spent a good deal of time trying to figure out how I could write about this topic without confessing that it was spawned by my attendance of New Moon, The Twilight Saga. But, eventually I decided – why fight it. It goes to relevance…and the sweet level of innocent romance that we should all be grasping for.
So, I was at New Moon and noticed that no less than three of the movie previews were for films that seemed to have a common theme. I shall sum it up as this – girl is in love with boy (but is frustrated / jilted), girl tries to get what she wants through determination, some magical/mythical force interferes, presents alternate boy crush, girl falls for new boy harder than the first – all thanks to fate or chance or whateveryouwannacallit.
In the first trailer, it was a note left in an ancient Italian wall addressed to Juliet (named, what else, Letters to Juliet).
In the second it was infatuation attached to coins in a Roman fountain (When in Rome).
And finally it was some myth about proposals made on February 29th (Leap Year).
Can you spot the difference?
What it got me thinking was not that Hollywood seems to be repeating itself (really, nothing new about that) but that romance is nothing without the unexpected twists and turns. That the magic we are all drawn to and looking for when we buy into these ideas of myth are really about women wanting to know that their true love is fated – that best laid plans are always usurped by the magic of love. What is love if it isn’t a surprise?
I don’t want to spoil everything for those of you who might be planning to go to these films under the pretense that the girl won’t get the guy in the end – but the happy ending always comes when fate intercedes. Life is never how we plan it, and it always works out better when we let go of the plan and leave the crucial things, like love, to chance.
Coca-Cola has just released a Canadian version of their song “Open Happiness” (featuring Kardinal Offishall, Jay Malinowski of Bedouin Sound Clash, and the amazing Beatrice Martin of Coeur de Pirate). It’s a catchy little tune that ultimately is meant to help you equate happiness with opening up a bottle of coke. It’s certainly not the first time an advertiser has used happiness as a tool for sales – in fact, it is behind most pitch lines when you think about it just not quite so blatantly.
When I see happiness as a tagline, it always gets me thinking about the elements of that state of being. How can we really find happiness? Now, that is the question of many a philosophy debate and the motivation for most movements and religions – so I am not going to attempt to answer it here.
However, I do think that we loose sight of happiness the more deftly we pursue the things we expect to deliver it. So, I’ll borrow from the likes of the Dali Lama and Buddha to say that three of the key elements of happiness have nothing to do with physical things but rather letting go of the things you can’t control. These three elements are: being present in the moment; appreciating what you do have; and letting go of expectation.
Kardinal Offishall
Sadly, these things can be very hard to achieve and they alone won’t result in a full life of total happiness – especially when you are up against Western society and culture. But, if you can find moments of it…then you’ll find slices of happiness. So, can you find it opening a bottle of Coke? Listening to a jaunty tune? Rolling the dice? The truth is, you can find it anywhere – the real trick is to keep finding it over and over no matter what you are doing.
It’s hard to believe but it’s been almost 9 years since the first seed of Zufall was created. Back then it was a flip of a coin instead of dice but it was the same premise… let chance decide where we would go and the entire trip would become an adventure. It wasn’t planned, it was the spawn of utter indecision – a car packed and ready for a camping trip and neither of us could decide (or was willing to choose) where to go. All of the gory details of that first date, young love and unbridled indecision can be found on the history page.
A lot has changed in these past 9-years, we’ve developed the dice for Zufall, embraced the philosophy, and (in the last couple of years) have been lucky enough to introduce lots of great people to a world of adventure by chance. We get more and more people telling us about their experiences and sharing their adventures. Who knew that one moment of letting a coin toss decide our weekend destination would lead to so much?
In honour of our 9th anniversary, we’ve decided to hit the road for another camping adventure. We’re gearing up for 5 days and we have no idea where we will end up. Just like our first trip, we won’t roll the dice until the car is packed and we are ready to hit the road – we’ll have to be prepared for anything. But, unlike our first trip, we will be video taping our excursions to share with you here on Zublog. Stay tuned for episode one of ZufallTV…guaranteed to contain Tim’s antics, Val’s tisking and lots of random fun.
Last week Oprah Winfrey issued a challenge on her show – asking “What Can You Live Without?” The people who took the challenge for her television program gave up the things they seemed to be addicted to – mostly technologies like cell phones, video games, and the internet. It was an interesting social experiment that got to the heart of just how much time we loose to these ‘modern conveniences’. And, how these things are keeping us from connecting with our families, loved ones and our community.
What stuck me was that these people, like many people, use these devices to fill up their time because they don’t know how else to use it. We’ve become such a scheduled society that we don’t know what to do with ourselves when there isn’t something demanding our attention. We’ve lost our sense of creative play, our sense of adventure, our ability to reconnect with the world immediately around us.
So here is Zufall’s challenge to go along with Oprah’s. When you ask yourself what can I live without – ask if a schedule is one of those things. Try giving up control of every minute of everyday. Try not having a plan. Try giving up expectation and just roll the dice! I think you’ll find that just like giving up technological time-suckers, giving up on a schedule, once in a while, will bring you closer to your family, friends and community.
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