THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

Here are many stories of single mothers struggling to raise their kids against incredible odds, and with little help. But rarely do you hear of single fathers going through the same struggle. Chris Gardner is one of those fathers.

The Pursuit of Happyness is a very moving film about a man and his quest for a better life. It is an inspiring case study of how many of the elements of happiness work together from relationships, to poverty, to positive mental attitude and determination.

The story, The Pursuit of Happyness is a touching and inspiring film about Chris Gardner, a sales man of bone density scanners determined to become a stockbroker but first he has to go through an internship which means no pay. Chris decides to do it but when his wife leaves and he is evicted, he has to take care of his son on his own. So they find themselves sometimes living on the street and struggling to get by. The story follows him and his son as he chases his dream often sleeping in homeless shelters and even a public bathroom but never giving up for the sake of his son. 

The Pursuit of Happyness teaches us a lot about the importance of virtues and strength in our happy lives. One of the famous and inspiring dialogue that I would like to mention here is the one Christopher said to his son and here it goes.

"Don’t ever let someone tell you that you can’t do something. Not even me."

This is really a beautiful line for motivation. No matter what others think about you but you should be firm in your own determination and should keep on going things that you want to do in life.

Besides, the movie shows how people without money are often victimized and bullied by those who do have money and power. Yet Chris Gardener repeatedly demonstrates the importance of good relationships even with people who treat him badly. 

Is it based on the true story ?

Yes, The Pursuit of Happyness was based on the memoir of the same name by the real-life Chris Gardener.

 

Its a very inspiring movie with Will Smith and his real life son playing the lead characters and at times I couldn't help looking at my own life where I could at times relate. For his performance, Will Smith was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Actor.

THE PIANIST

The Pianist is a serious movie brought out in a tabloid-besotted time, a prestige picture that invigorates a study of character and history that knows irony to be a part of life and not the purpose of art. It is a film that rivals every one of the greatest Holocaust films ever made. Old-fashioned in both visual and narrative style and in its overall restraint, the film clearly benefits from the director's first-hand knowledge of the territory.

Roman Polanski is probably the strongest film about the persecution of the Jews during World War II. The story follows a brilliant pianist, a Polish Jew Wladyslaw Szpilman witnesses the restrictions Nazis place on Jews in the Polish capital, from restricted access to the building of the Warsaw ghetto. As his family is rounded up to be shipped off to the Nazi labor camps, he escapes deportation and eludes capture by living in the ruins of Warsaw. Szpilman is left to fend for himself and he spends the next several years dashing from one abandoned home to another, desperate to avoid capture by German occupation troops.

The Pianist garnered best acting award (Adrien Brody), best direction (Roman Polanski), and best adapted screenplay at the 2003 Academy Awards. 

Is The Pianist is based on the true story?

Yes, it is a true story based on the book and was first published in 1946 as Death of a City, but was banned by Polish Communist officials and went out of print until 1998, when a new edition was issued as The Pianist. Wladyslaw Szpilman, somehow, despite the brutal atrocities that he sees and experiences, the artist not only survives but retains the ability to create beauty through music. 

Besides, I get the feeling that Polanski is expressing through this movie how he deals with such painful scars, haunting memories, and lasting grief. I got some information that Roman Polanski a survivor of the Holocaust who lost many family members and had an experience been a prisoner of the Polish ghetto during World War II.

ECKHART TOLLE

Who is he? Do you know him?
 I bet, all decomers students semester 4 know about him.  

He is Eckhart Tolle the writer of the article, Thinking Folly.

Eckhart Tolle was born in Germany, where he spent the first thirteen years of his life. After graduating from the University of London, he was a research scholar and supervisor at Cambridge University. When he was twenty-nine, a profound spiritual transformation virtually dissolved his old identity and radically changed the course of his life. The next few years were devoted to understanding, integrating and deepening that transformation and marked the beginning of an intense inward journey. Eckhart Tolle is not aligned with any particular religion or spiritual tradition. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. 

THE POWER OF NOW 

Tolle is the author of The Power of Now, which has been widely recognized as one of the most influential spiritual books. Published in the late 1990s with an initial printing of 3,000 copies the book's sales' growth accelerated in 2000 after Oprah Winfrey recommended it in her magazine, It has appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list and been translated into 33 languages. As of 2009, three million copies had been sold in North America. He says the book "represents the essence of my work, as far as it can be conveyed in words" and that it "can be seen as a restatement for our time of that one timeless spiritual teaching, the essence of all religions".

The Power of Now is widely regarded as one of the most influential guides to spiritual enlightenment of our time. This is because Eckhart Tolle speaks form a place of knowing. As the title suggests the book explains how true power can only be found in the present moment. After all, isn't the now the only real time? The past is a memory and the future is a projection, they are not real.

This is one of the quote that I got from the book when I do some background reading.

 "The pain-body wants to survive, just like every other entity in existence, and it can only survive if it gets you to unconsciously identify with it. It can then rise up, take you over, "become you," and live through you. It needs to get its "food" through you. It will feed on any experience that resonates with its own kind of energy, anything that creates further pain in whatever form: anger, destructiveness, hatred, grief, emotional drama, violence, and even illness. So the pain-body, when it has taken you over, will create a situation in your life that reflects back its own energy frequency for it to feed on. Pain can only feed on pain. Pain cannot feed on joy. It finds it quite indigestible." - Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now)

From the quote that shown above, Eckhart Tolle is dead serious and seems too deep to grasp, but then he suddenly makes a funny conclusion like the one above, or bursts out into giggles at something he finds very amusing. Typically, the things he finds ridiculous and laughable, are often the things we consider norms or truths. Eckhart Tolle questions those and makes us realize that we are not our past pains and we do not need to feed our own or other people´s pains either. 

As Eckhart Tolle says, if you just become aware of that parasitic energy field called pain-body, you can take steps to lessen your own and the collective suffering. If you remain unaware, you will deny its existence and actually create more pain and suffering. That is the meaning on how the pain-body exists and grows. We can see that Eckhart Tolle is not a person who always wants to give up. He makes the reader gain motivation and inspiration through his book, The Power of Power.

The past has no power over the present moment - Echkart Tolle

FRIEND AND ENEMY BECOME WHAT ?

Frenemy? What is that? Truly said, I do not know the meaning of the frenemy and i do not know this word is exist. After i read the article from CL text book, then i know what is the meaning of frenemy. A frenemy, which comes from the words friend and enemy, is a person who are you friendly with but does not have your best interests in mind. They are the people in your life who purport to be a friend but do some oddly enemy-like things to you on more than an occasional basis, and in a way that seems pretty predetermined to unsettle you. Spotting them and dealing with them is vital to preserve your own sanity and to know when to ditch the friend who pushes things just a bit too far. I bet, all of you have frenemy at least one right. I also have frenemy. 

Dealing with a frenemy can be tough. It's okay to maintain relationships with frenemies, but it's also important to preserve our own interests and needs when dealing with them. If you have frenemy, how you deal with it? I will tell you the way to deal with it and I got this sources from my background reading.

Firstly, you should be cordial because there is no reason for you to be mean towards your frenemy. There is no problem keeping a frenemy as an acquaintance as long as you are not revealing secrets about yourself to your frenemy anymore. Next, a frenemy is likely talking about you behind your back right because I also have experience something like this. So, you should just keep quiet about your personal by keep conversation to fun, lighthearted topics, and do not share anything that you do not want repeated.

After that, please be aware about how your frenemies act because they may act like your best friend, and other times, someone who does not like you at all. It is crazy right? frenemy is like hypocrite person and just want the advantages. Please be aware of your frenemy's actions too and you should not treat a frenemy like a best friend when they treat you like one, because that will encourage frenemy like behavior. Other than that, try not to be hurt by things your frenemy says and does as you know, the frenemy has their own motives for why they act the way they do. You should be strong and do not let your frenemy affect your own self esteem, because their actions are a reflection of themselves, not a reflection of you. If they say hurtful things, it may be to cover up their own feelings

The other way to deal with frenemy is be aware that just because someone is a frenemy to you only, they may not be a frenemy to everyone. Maybe because of some reasons that you will never know. Do not automatically assume that person is betraying others too without any prove but if they are, you should probably let the others know so they do not get hurt in the future. Lastly, do not introduce your frenemies to your other friends and it is important to keep them separate so your frenemy does not hurt your friend.

For my opinion, it is okay to maintain a relationship with a frenemy but it is also important to remember that this person has a negative agenda. In other words, they do not have your best interest in mind. It is also important to have a good sense of self when dealing with a frenemy because these relationships can be stressful, confusing, and generally draining. Frenemy can be really damaging to both a person's mental and emotional health, and if you can't find a way to keep this person in check you're better off without them. My best advice is to take yourself out of the equation, while still remaining physically present.  

If you want to know whether your friends is one of you frenemy, here 5 SIGNS YOUR FRIEND IS FRENEMY article for you. Have a nice reading