“There’s beauty in the struggle, ugliness in the success,” J Cole raps in his song Love Yourz about how he “Thinks being broke was better” referring to how he misses the simple days. People tend to focus on success and sometimes miss out on what’s right in front of their face. These people live in the future and completely miss out on the present. “What money without happiness, or hard times without the people you love?”
The music video shows the lives of two young boys. At the start of the video a boy walks up to a group of boys, and they wont let him hangout because he’s not wearing cool sneakers. The boy walks home to a small townhouse in the city and his family cheers him up. They have dinner together, laughing and having conversations. The next shot is the rich boy that dissed the poor boy, in his huge house in the suburbs. His dad grabs a glass out of the mom’s hand while they start to fight. The boy tries to talk to his dad but he waves him away. The end of the video shows the two boys grown up and how differently they treat their wives. Maybe money really doesn’t buy happiness.
Frank Reynolds, a character in the television show Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, goes to visit his son and daughter who work in a bar. Frank, a rich businessman who lives in a huge mansion, sees first hand the simple life his children live and decides to change. He traded his mansion for a disgusting apartment in the city and now spends his days hanging around Patty’s Pub. “The Gang” as they refer to themselves, spends their days getting into ridicules schemes. Frank traded his stressful life for a simple one, and never looked back.
Lords of Dogtown, a movie based on a true story about the boys who reinvented and redefined skateboarding, also revolves around this theme. The film shows the lives of a young group of boys who spend their days skateboarding and surfing in Venice Beach California during the early 1970s. The boy’s live a simple life and spend their days skating, surfing, and causing trouble around the town.
Skip Engblom, the owner of the Zephyr Surf Shop and mentor of the boys, gives them new polyurethane wheels to test out. This allows the boys to make carves on the ground like they would on a surfboard. A drought in California strikes, causing empty swimming pools all over. The boys take this opportunity to go “pool hopping” form house to house, skating in the empty pools. This is where the idea for skate bowls came from.
Skip enters them into skateboard competitions after creating a Zeppher skateboard group. After winning major skating competitions, the boys start to receive offers from major skating companies. This breaks the team apart and they start to skate just for money and fame. “This isn’t about fame or money, until you put those kids in the magazines they didn’t care about either one” Skip told one of the recruiters from a major skateboard company. The boys who grew up skateboarding and surfing everyday for fun, were now changed forever.
The boy’s return to Dogtown when they find out their old friend Sid has a brain tumor. Sid’s dad empties the pool and they spend the day skating in the pool just like the good old days. After Sid dies from a brain tumor, his dad keeps the pool empty and refers to it as The DogBowl. Skip remains true to the Dogtown ways and continues to run his shop.
Instead of focusing on how great everything will be when you make it big, enjoy the present. The big skate companies told the boys about the fame and fortune, causing their ambition to get the better of them. Each one wanted to be the best skater, and this broke apart not only their skate group, but also their friendship. Without that ambition they might still be skating in the empty pools of Dogtown without a worry.
The fatal flaw of ambition dates all the way back to Shakespeare’s Macbeth. This play, first preformed in the 1600s, revolves around the idea of seeking power for its own selfish reasons. Macbeth’s power hungry demeanor driven by ambition caused him to lose everything, instead of living a happy comfortable life. This ambition came from a prophecy told to Macbeth by a trio of witch’s who assured him one day he would be King of Scotland. Macbeth murders The King and takes the throne for himself. The guilt and paranoia caused him to commit more murders and soon the people of Scotland hated their tyrannical ruler. He could have lived a happy and simple life if he listened to the words of J Cole, “There’s beauty in the struggle, ugliness in the success”.
Do you think living a simple life is better? Or do you think money can buy happiness?