Ironic

Let me introduce my readers to a label to one of my voices, Alanis Morisette. I recently just discovered her music, and have fallen in love with several of her songs (of course, only after examining her lyrics). Her songs don’t only embody my outlook in different phases of my life, but they are also a culmination of the growth of my thoughts over the years. It’s amazing that she captures my thoughts in her words so fittingly.
I’d like to begin with talking about the song my friend suggested to me, ‘Ironic’. Irony is one of the reasons I strongly believe there is someone up there who shares my sense of humor. When life hits someone with something unexpectedly unfortunate, it’s the irony that I find gives me faith. As she puts it, “everything blows up in your face”, but how can one not laugh it off? Those that pursue theodicy should try pointing out irony as an evidence of God’s gift. Whether it is my Hindu-ness in believing so, I do not know, but it is how God euphemizes the news of a sad event with an ironic tone that impresses me. It makes me cry and laugh at the same time. If He must give me pain, I’d rather have it in doses of irony, because I’m sure I can use some chuckling. Those who find Morisette’s lyrics too simple, or her voice annoying, or her music distasteful, I encourage you to look again.
The beauty of her song is in fact that it portrays the everyday ironies that occur in our lives that we fail to appreciate, and hence the simplicity of her lyrical content is only crucial to her purpose. I understand that some people will never connect with her songs as I do, but I find it worth my while to extend a line to the angle that I find most acute in her music. The ease and wildness of her voice is what convinces me of the song’s outlook on irony. I see my reflection…someone who can recognize the wild and sinister tragedies of life but ease it by observing the comic plate they are served in.
More on Alanis coming up, so haters, stay tuned!

The Pursuit of HappYness

I used to consider myself a HAPPY person. My strategy was the simple denial of unhappiness until I felt like I couldn’t lie to myself anymore, even though that lying was doing me good.
Perhaps I have lost the capability to see the goodness in things, or I have just lost the skill to twist anything negative into positive. I think the question that has ultimately taken away my happiness is “Am I happy?”. I think there was a movie I watched (I’m too lazy to find out which one) where the suggestion was to only ask yourself questions that provided you with encouraging and optimistic replies. Now, I think it’s time I give that strategy a try.
I watched the movie the pursuit of happyness. I’m sure you’ve noticed the misspelling as did everyone else Will Smith, in the beginning of the movie, is frustrated by the fact that there is no Y in happiness. It’s almost as if there is a certain way that he has defined happiness, and when the same happiness is presented in a different form, it does not seem like the same word to him. Nevertheless, as his character builds up, he stops wondering about the misspelling of the word and the misfortune of his life, . While in the beginning he figures that it must always be a PURSUIT of happiness, as opposed to actual happiness, he later begins to recognize happiness in any form, even in the billion obstacles ahead of him. That tiny moment of happiness after the two-hour long struggle is felt even by the audience, and makes the pursuit of happyness absolutely worth living for.