Persistence of Happiness

One of the first things you learn in Film 101 is the concept Persistence of Vision. The theory is that our eyes retain the memory of the last frame until the next frame appears and the next and the next. The result is a smooth progression of movement of the scene on the film or in a flipbook. Our memory has a wonderful talent of forgetting entirely to notice and record the edges of the frame or the shadows of turning pages as it focuses on the depiction.

Life often times works like a flipbook.

Lots of memorable things, lots of happy moments strung together.  Remember how a year after you ended that awful relationship all you can remember are a string of great moments where the two of you were so in love? You just cannot recollect the off times between scenes, the texture of the pages your destiny was written on or the shadows between each action.

Imagine if your memory and experience were the opposite. What if you lost sight of the scene? What if all you could see was the flipbook. The artificial nature of your experience shrinks away in light of the reality of an ugly paper, an ephemeral piece of film. What if your present was stuck between frames instead of wrapped up in the action of the story?

Persistence of Happiness is getting wrapped up in the story. It’s all about allowing yourself the indulgence and joy to live the scene and forget the fabric. It is not an illusion, it is another viewpoint. One I think is crucial to combating the inertia of depression. There are no answers on the paper. You cannot find meaning to the story playing across the pages by tearing apart the binding to inspect the kind of glue used.

Let the happiness persist. Let the story be the focus. The action, emotion, characters will provide a fuller insight to the story of you than the nature of the medium.

Let the happiness persist.