The Bliss Archive is pretty self-explanatory. It’s a place for people to upload moments of bliss. Whatever that means for them. People have posted dramatic rare experiences and ordinary every day moments that somehow became not so ordinary. So far there’s a story about a rainstorm in Laos, a Fats Waller song that changed someone’s day, a photo of a little girl riding her bike for the first time, a sighting of humpback whales, a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, and a drawing of a hug.
The site was inspired by The Ignorant Bliss of Sun and Moon, a short film I wrote that screened at the Tribeca Film Festival. That film is about a down and out guy cycling between misery and inspired clarity. In a lot of ways the film is about these fleeting moments in our lives when all the stress and pain and general madness clears away and we’re able to get some perspective on life.
One of the barriers to doing this has been a certain embarrassment I feel around it. I mean, this is some earnest stuff. Where’s the irony? I’m a liberal, secular, Brooklyn-based, brown haired, glasses-wearing white guy so I’m supposed to approach my day with a delicate blend of local, organic cynicism and irony. I was bred to be a sarcastic prick. But there’s not a trace of cynicism to be found here. The Bliss Archive is free from the tyranny of irony and snark.
I’ve only shown the site to a handful of friends. Now I’m inviting the entire world wide web to participate. So take a look at the site. Read, watch, listen. Click on the Follow button. And Post something - a distant memory you'll never forget or something that happened today. You can post pictures, music, video, anything that helps you share a moment when you were reminded of how you want to live or just that it feels good to be alive.
And in case you've got some of that embarrassment I mentioned - don't worry - it's anonymous once it's on the site.
We all have our own personal archive of bliss - we just don't tend to share it. Start here.