Julie and Julia...and Celia

Today I had a unique opportunity as a blogger-for-happiness-and-personal-improvement.  When I started this thing in January (already 2 whole months ago, if you can believe that) I had three primary inspirations to take the blogging route as a project of accountability for active change in my life:

1) My sister's assertion that New Year's Resolutions are pointless and that no one ever keeps them...since I had approximately 15 New Year's Resolutions, I  had a great desire to prove her wrong.

2) A recent viewing of Bridget Jones' Diary, wherein a socially awkward single woman decides to take control of her life and keep a diary for a year.

3)  A recent viewing of Julie and Julia, the movie adaptation of the book by Julie Powell, who, feeling like her life was going nowhere and having spent seven years in dead-end temp jobs, made an impulsive decision to cook her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year, and blog about it.

Well blog readers, today I met the source of one of those inspirations.  I met Julie Powell.

Now I say "met" because I did meet her, briefly, as one of many women filing through her book signing line at the SMU Women's Symposium today (which I only attended for the free lunch and to see Julie Powell).  Julie was the keynote speaker at the symposium.  I wasn't expecting to meet her, and I always stumble over what to say to famous people (friends will recall the conversation on Mexican food that I had with the lead singer of Anberlin at an album release party last fall).  I mean, what are you supposed to say, really?  "Hi, you're famous, that's why I'm standing in line to talk to you"?  The whole premise is kind of awkward.  But anyway, I asked her if she had any advice for aspiring writers (which I vaguely consider myself to be).  Her reply: "Do as I say, not as I do...Write through everything, even when you're depressed.  I would go weeks at a time without writing...that's half the battle really, is just pushing your way through."  Happy with this nugget of wisdom, I thanked her enthusiastically for coming to SMU, and wandered off with my signed copy of Julie and Julia.

Julie Powell herself

That's just one small aspect of my encounter with Julie Powell today, though.  Most of what I gained from her was by hearing her speak.  She was an absolute pleasure to listen to; very witty, very down-to-earth, none of that high-and-mighty attitude that you sometimes get with keynote speakers.  The thing that's cool about her is that she's really an accidental celebrity.  She pointed out the obvious today when she said "My thought process was never, 'Oh, I'm going to do this yearlong cooking thing and then write a bestseller, and then one day Nora Ephron will make it into a movie."  She just started doing something personal, for herself, and the rest of the world somehow took notice.  In fact, she said that she doesn't like to talk about the movie because thinking about it "creeps her out."  I can kind of see why...the whole thing was a random, personal project that suddenly launched her into the public fame sphere.  I think it would be totally bizarre to go and see "The Life of Celia" on the big screen, you know?  Or, try imagining this blog in film version (not so sure it would be as big of a hit).

I was interested to find out that the Julia Child cooking project wasn't the first crazy project that Julie embarked on in her life.  Apparently, she has a habit of starting these massive endeavors for no good reason; for example, she decided two weeks before her wedding to give a small handmade gift to each of her 250 guests, and subsequently spent her last two weeks as a legally single person "sculpting lots of tiny, fat naked women."  Things like that.  She said that from the time she was young, she had the idea that happiness was something given to you, something you earned and had to work really hard to get.  Happiness, in her words, was like trying to catch a leprechaun - you can see it off to the side, or know it's right behind you, but as soon as you turned to look at it, it would disappear.  To her, happiness wasn't just something that you had to work towards; you also had to wait for it to appear, and then manage to catch it before it flitted away again.

But now, post-Julie and Julia project, Julie doesn't see happiness this way so much anymore.  Instead, she sees it as something you just have to accept, to let yourself have.  Instead of constantly striving toward the next thing, or looking ahead to all these different things you want to accomplish in order to be "fulfilled", happiness might just be accepting a state of contentment with your present circumstances - being content with the people that are already in your life, with the things that you already have, and with whatever you're doing at the present moment.  Julie said, "happiness didn't come when I was offered a book deal, or when it was made into a movie, or when I got to meet Meryl Streep...even though those are all, objectively, REALLY awesome.  My moment of happiness, at the end of the whole process, was sitting with my husband, eating the last of Julia's recipes, and knowing that I did it."  She also brought up Thomas Jefferson's statement in the Declaration of Independence that everyone has the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" - emphasis on the pursuit.  Don't we always  focus on the "happiness" part of that statement?  Sure, everyone has a right to be happy with their life...but even more, every person has a right to chase after that happiness with their whole being.  Happiness is something to work towards...but that goal is very likely closer than you realize.  And it doesn't necessarily require undertaking massive projects, like cooking 524 complicated French recipes in 365 days.  But, if it does, then go for it.

On the drive home, I was thinking about the advice that Julie gave me about writing - to keep writing, even when it's difficult and when you're depressed and don't feel like it.  I've heard that advice from other writers in  various formats, of course...but putting it in context with the "happiness" theme of the day, I think it is even more pertinent.  To be happy, to live at all, means that you have to keep living, to keep going even when it's difficult and when you're depressed and don't feel like it.  I've spent too many hours laying on my couch, staring at Facebook, wishing my life was different than it is, or that I was happier, or that I was better in such-and-such a way.  That's not living...not living life fully, anyway.

So here's to Julie, who today inspired me as Julia Child in turn inspired her.  I'm going to keep writing, keep going, and keep living...even if it takes a few crazy projects of my own to push myself forward.