There is a singer who broke the sales record in South Africa when he released his first album. He has a large number of fans in South Africa, and his status is comparable to that of Elvis.
You are one of his many fans. You play his songs on a loop every day. His songs continue to inspire you and accompany you through many difficult years.
On a sunny day, you heard that your idol sang the last song on stage, silently lit himself on fire, and he committed suicide.
The most surprising thing is that after more than ten years, you have received a flyer that reads:
"On Resurrection Day, your singer is resurrected, and he will hold a resurrection ceremony at his concert next month."
You will be skeptical, but willing to be deceived, you also want to give it a try.
A month later, you're sitting in the stadium for ten thousand people and still can't believe he's in the spotlight, until he opens his mouth and sings the first sentence:
"I Wonder".
You finally recognized him, that's the voice you used to miss day and night, and you shed tears unconsciously.
This is not a bloody story or a well-planned hoax. This is a true story that happened in South Africa and a moment of happiness that many South Africans have personally experienced.
The resurrected man, named Rodriguez, was a Mexican-American.
My idol when I was a kid was Michael Jackson, and I had his posters, tapes, and CDs, and I had worn out several pairs of shoes from practicing his skates all day. Seeing the story of Rodriguez's resurrection, I also hope to receive a flyer one day, and then Michael Jackson is resurrected.
Does Rodriguez have superpowers? Didn't he burn himself to death? How did he come back to life? In order not to affect the look and feel of your subsequent films, I won't give any spoilers.
I just tell you, this director is amazing. He made the documentary to a height that many suspense dramas can't reach. It is very watchable and won the Oscar that year.
But what appealed to me more than the viewability was that the film inspired me to think about happiness.
What is happiness? This is a question I have been thinking about day and night.
Happiness = famous?
Obviously not, otherwise, what do you think of big star suicides?
Happiness = rich?
Obviously it's not right, otherwise, how do you think about middle-aged people who save hundreds of millions but are in hospital beds?
Happiness = Health?
Or not, otherwise, what do you think of the street beggars who have not had the next meal?
So what exactly is happiness?
Rodriguez, who is far away in the United States, helped me fill in the answer to the right of the equal sign.
In South Africa, Rodriguez is admired by thousands of people. He swayes freely on the stage. It is like the real hometown of this American. He has played more than 30 concerts in South Africa.
But he did not stay in South Africa, he still lived in his hometown in the United States, wearing a suit and sunglasses every day, and continued his life as a migrant worker. He still chose those dirty and tiring jobs that no one did, and he still discussed music with people every day. and politics.
With such a drastic change in life, in the face of "heaven", Rodriguez still chose "hell". He gave all the money for the concert to his relatives and friends, and he still lived in that small ruined house.
Why is this uncle so strange? Heaven has a way, he doesn't go, hell has no door, he comes spontaneously, has he got water in his head?
You have to know that Rodriguez graduated from the Department of Philosophy at University, and almost all of the money he made from moving bricks was used to take his daughter to visit art exhibitions. He is absolutely extraordinary.
To understand Rodriguez's choice, we can make a mental analogy:
Xiao Ming has just graduated from college. He wants to work overtime while he is young, resign when he saves 50,000 yuan, and then travel around the world. Soon, 50,000 was enough, but Xiao Ming had already forgotten his plans for a global trip. What he wanted was to save 200,000 and buy a car. After buying a car, there is still a house, and after buying a house, there are more houses, Xiao Ming can't stop.
In the eyes of outsiders, Xiao Ming is an out-and-out successful person, but only Xiao Ming knows in his heart that he is not happy at all.
Although the position is getting higher and higher and the salary is increasing, what about the pressure? But it has grown exponentially. It can be said that if the pressure of growth is compared to the size of a watermelon, the salary increase is almost the size of a sesame seed.
I believe that Xiao Ming is not an isolated case. Many people should have this experience. With more and more money, the pressure is getting bigger and bigger.
Why can't you stop at will when you have money?
Because money works like this:
When you have no money, you desperately want what you want, and when you get it, you want more. It's like an endless loop that keeps you working all day long.
That's how people are. For good things, they want to get them with all their might, and after they get them, they desperately want to get more.
Conversely, what about the bad stuff? For example, when we are sick, when we are not sick, we will worry about being sick. After we are sick, we will try our best to escape, and finally get well, and then start a new round of desperate anxiety.
For the good, wanting to get, and then desperately wanting more after getting it, this opens an infinite cycle of wanting, getting, and then wanting more. This cycle never stops, and we put ourselves in the "greed" jail".
For the bad, we are afraid of the experience, and after the experience, we desperately want to escape. This opens an infinite cycle of being afraid of experiencing the bad when there is nothing, and wanting to escape quickly when there is something wrong. This cycle never stops, and we put ourselves in this way. "The Prison of Fear".
The prison of greed and the prison of fear do not have any exits. There is only a crawling channel between each other. We are always crawling inside, either staying in the prison of greed, or staying in the prison of fear. Unable to stop, lingering and trapped in it, how can we be happy?
How can we be happy?
Break the wall and figure out a way to escape like Shawshank.
Careful observation will reveal that the vicious circle of the prison of greed arises from the pursuit of the good, and the vicious circle of the prison of fear arises from the fear of the bad.
Rodriguez must be the one who broke through the wall. He really gave up the pursuit of good (staying in South Africa to be a superstar) and the fear of bad (going home and continuing to be a migrant worker), when he broke down at the same time. After the vicious cycle of these two lives, he successfully escaped from prison.
So, we can't understand him, how can we prisoners understand the world of outsiders?
You can be rich and famous, but you will not be trapped in greed, you work hard all your life just to please your heart;
You can live and die, but you won't be haunted by fear, and even if your time is short, you can still be content.
No matter how the outside world changes, the inner peace is always as calm as water. How much do you think you can buy it?
So, Rodriguez helped me write an answer on the right side of the happiness equation: happiness = tranquility .
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