Written for the one-year anniversary of MLP Forums!

Life, Liberty, and the beauty of Love and Tolerance

Before I begin this 800 word essay or post (an indirect challenge I took on from the Happy B-Day forum!), you may recognize the title taken from the Declaration of Independence. Of course, the last words were changed from “the pursuit of happiness” to “the beauty of Love and tolerance”. I am sure we have all had our Constitution and Declaration of Independence lectures, both in high school and college. Even if you are outside of the United States, chances are you have heard and read about America’s founding morals and values. However, it was always interesting to people: the fact that the founding fathers worded happiness as something you pursue. So, can happiness ever truly be obtained? Well, that’s what we are going to go into, and it all relates to love and tolerance, with the My Little Pony community as an example.

The pursuit of happiness is sometimes confused with the American Dream. The traditional American Dream in short, is to work hard, obtain wealth by working hard, and pass this tradition onto the next generation. However, there are a lot more factors that play into this concept. But the basic idea is the fact that our society has gotten so caught up with big business, obtaining wealth and materialistic possessions…that we may have truly forgotten the things in our lives that make us truly happy. To explain this better, I will tell a short fictional story/hypothetical:

-Congratulations! You’ve “made it” by the American Dream standards. You have wealth, you have power, and you can virtually afford many items with a 1 to 5 million dollar salary a year (before taxes). But wait! Now you are a part of the largest tax bracket in existence, sometimes paying more than half of your income on taxes. This upsets you, but you continue to build your own business and Entrepreneur Empire in the hopes of obtaining happiness. You love what you do and you give a lot to charity, but you are still unhappy. You feel like you’ve missed it, and you are not quite sure why. You have money, you have power, you have respect…what else is there? Well, there is love and tolerance. And finally by some miracle overcoming your busy schedule, you find your soul mate! You get married later in life, and have a few kids. However, you are so busy with work it’s hard to spend time with family. One day, you find yourself stopped at a stoplight in a $90,000 SUV and your family is arguing about cell phones, not being able to do what they want, and you are upset. You then notice the car in front of you: A beat up old station wagon that probably wouldn’t be able to sell for more than $800; and there is a full family in the car, windows down, laughing and having a great time after a fishing trip. Then it FINALLY hits you! You realize after chasing your dreams for so long, everything you needed was right in front of you.

Now, instead of giving to charity because it “looks good”, you give freely and visit those children in need along with your family. Your family begins to learn what it truly means to be happy: money is nice, but if you let it rule you, it will consume you. Love and happiness is about random acts of kindness that go unnoticed. Happiness is about sharing, caring, and being joyful no matter what the circumstances. Because no matter what you’ve been through in life, and no matter what disability you may face, the only true disability in this life is a bad attitude. Also, with great power comes great responsibility. Lastly, with faith, hope, and love…you can finally find true happiness, no matter what your background, income, or upbringing. You can control your own destiny! And that is one of the messages I believe this show has to offer-

So if we bring that story into the My Little Pony community, WHO KNEW! I mean, who knew a television show designed for little girls could bring together a community of boys, girls, men, and women of all ages? Well, that is what has happened and is happening! And we have the entire community, and places like MLPForums to thank for that! Now mind you, the internet is anything but a true human experience. But it’s a great start to real life meet ups, getting to know others, and just plain learning how to not follow the norm or the crowd!

Now my quick background: I am not extremely active on the site, but I have gotten to know some amazing people here, and even though it’s online, I can tell by the quality of a lot of posts…that a lot of folks here care about being genuine, and care about helping the world. So to that I say, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MLP FORUMS! Let the true pursuit of happiness start with love and tolerance. Although we may always pursue happiness, always remember: if we approach something with a humble heart and a genuine spirit, “with ordinary talents and extraordinary perseverance, ALL things are attainable!” –Sir Thomas Buxton

-STEEL MATT (Matthew)