Adam Shell
w/Song River
Vents Magazine
The pursuit of happiness. A
ponderment searched and researched probably just as much as love has.
We want to feel that state, and in our pursuit of it there is
realization that it takes work. Anything worth having is worth our
efforts.
Documentary film maker Adam Shell
certainly found a calling as he considered the word happy and began
to speak with people from all walks of life from around the world
about their own state of happy. Together Adam brings a film that
breaks down what this word really is in a tangible sort of way. A
state of being that isn't complicated, but takes diligence. After all
we are what we create. Pursuing Happiness takes us on a
journey to understand a complex emotion but one that attainable to us
all. As we learn, our expression is our happiness.
Song
River: Hey Adam, so nice to be able to talk to you today. How are you
doing?
Adam
Shell: Doing great! Thank you for taking time as well.
SR:
I have now been able to watch your film, Pursuing Happiness, and I
would first like you to define the word happy.
AS:
Wow. I guess it was what I set out to film how to do. It is a state
of contentment and being pleased with your existence and state of
being in a positive way. It's a tough one. Boiling it down to a
small nugget is difficult. There are so many questions and things
that come up. It's a struggle to boil it down.
SR:
Do you think that it is something that can be described better in
action, than in words?
AS:
If you break down the word happy. A state of bliss, euphoria, comfort
you could use all those words to define it, but when you really start
looking at the word happy for so many people it means so much more.
There's success, comfort ,so many things that come into play.
In any given moment I can tell you I am happy... but what am I using
to define that state.
SR:
Many times it seems we break out our synonyms to define our words. If
you go back and look at the etymology of the word happy it
comes from the word lucky.
Did
you find that there is a difference between being happy and content?
AS:
Yeah, I think you can be content without being happy. I think content
is not having a longing for anything, we are comfortable but are we
necessarily euphorically happy in that moment? To take it to
the next level and have the experience of happiness you have to
be content.
SR:
If we look at happy, singularly and in the moment, as opposed to
contentment...
AS:
Contentment can come and go in an instant. Which form are you looking
at? Life contentment and where you are with your wife, kids,
home, job...? But then you bring in the American thought of a
bigger home and nicer car. Happiness is split into two
categories. Most of us tend to look at the hedonic state. Am I
am having a good time, having a good meal, with good friends? I
think there isn't enough weight put on the state of accomplishing
something meaningful. We tend not to calculate many things in
when people ask if we are happy.
SR:
I think in our society we may have a hard time defining things. For
example, we meet on the street and I say, “How are you doing Adam?”
We say it because we don't know what else to say.
AS:
We use that as an automatic response. Think about how many
times have you said that someone. Really what did that person mean.
SR:
I think we might treat happy and sad the same way.
AS:
I do think another important thing to know here is that we are now in
a place where we have over analyzed everything that comes our way. I
think when we over analyze things they take on multiple meanings.
This brings a fear of how what I am saying is being defined. So, we
have to come up with new words. Now maybe we can start figuring
out real answers and maybe new answers for happy. They are words that
have so much meaning and are so broad.
SR:
What made you decide to tackle this project?
AS:
The film I made last, Finding
Kraftland,
was a film on finding the definition of joy. It is shown in the film
that it is done with full force and that is that person's model of
life. Realizing how that person operated as we filmed it, the
most resounding response was how people would say thank you for
bringing me this film to make me think about joy and how to bring it
into my life. This whole happiness thing at that time was
bubbling on the topic, there were college courses being taught on it,
books coming out so from there I wanted to make a film on it, not a
social action to fix something, but more of film on a big problem in
our society of not feeling happy and getting back to changing on an
individual basis to find happy. When we make individual changes
of course then it affects society as a whole.
SR:
Do you think as a society we are ready for self-discovery about what
happy is?
AS:
It is tough. The way we have been groomed as a society makes it hard.
I hate to say we have become lazy, but in a way we have. It
takes work to be happy. It doesn’t come from one little thing, it
can be little things every day.
SR:
We certainly have to desire it within ourselves to attain it.
AS:
We know we have a serious problem with mental illness who knows if
the ratios are the same as they were fifty years ago, we just may be
more aware, but I know there are clinical cases where people have to
have medication to cope. But for a good deal of us, maybe we just
need to work at it instead of medicating. Just a thought I am know
expert.
SR:
Putting medicine over something with a bandage sometimes works, but
sometimes we need to look at the causes.
Did
you learn about happiness from those who are more creative or people
who think more logically?
AS:
I honestly saw it was split down the middle. Both sides are happy in
different ways as we all find happy in different ways. There are many
things that can get you there. Just because you get there one way,
doesn’t mean that another person can't get there another way.
Take
for instance the painter Andy in the film. If one were to take away
his painting from him would he still be happy? Absolutely because it
isn’t just painting that makes him happy. It is a part of who he
is.
SR:
Do you think some people are predisposed genetically to be happy?
AS:
There are studies showing that we all are born with our own baseline,
or set point. Let's say you put it on a scale of 1-10 and I am a 6
and you’re a 10...that just means that is where you might begin.
Would a 6 have to work at it harder than a 10? Of course. Take for
example, look at athletes. Some are born to be that naturally and
others have to work at it and practice more. Of course, people can
live below their set point. It takes work wherever you are on the
scale.
SR:
One of the essentials for humans is love. Do you think happy is an
essential too?
AS:
Yes absolutely. Happiness is a part of our survival and it brings us
together as a group. Happiness is definitely all encompassing for our
survival.
SR:
What is something you do Adam to keep yourself happy?
AS:
I keep having this conversation over and over. (laughed) There is so
much information from people in this film to help. Tips and
tricks. Relishing the day. One thing we might be able to learn from
Gloria, John or Gary in the film, which is exactly why I made
this film, was so we could have help to pull from.
Then
there is the great moment when I was talking with Gary on the beach
and he said, “Your expression is experience,” and I said to him,
“So what you give is what you get?” Gary's response was perfect,
“What you give is what you experience right in that moment.”
If we all think about that on a daily basis, if we put that out into
the world, I think we all have better experiences in this world.
SR:
Whatever you put out in that moment, is what is going to come back to
you.
AS:
When you start looking for something, you notice it. By me
doing this project it elevated all of us who were involved. It
all started happening, naturally.
SR:
Has this project changed your family structure and marriage?
AS:
Yes, certainly. It has made me a lot less anxious and appreciate
every moment. I recall what Gloria said in the film, “We all live
every day as we are guaranteed eighty years and that notion makes us
take things for granted.” We can get hit by a bus tomorrow and it
will be over in an instant. I just want to say I lived and had a
great life. That is pursuing happiness.