Daniel Lavoie: the official website

Portrait of a happy man

7 Jours, 18th January 1992
by Ginette Ravel

Daniel Lavoie is a contented man. He says so himself but he knows that nothing ever comes easy. What is important is to be good in spite of all the upsets one meets in life.

GR: Daniel, the last time we met up – it looks like six years ago – you greatly impressed me when you told me you loved to put on your boots and go off into the mountains. Do you still find time for it?
DL: No, but it's true that I was very enthusiastic about it at that time. Since then I've had the greatest and unbelievable good luck to be able to buy some land in the countryside. So I still put on my boots to walk on my land, to busy myself with my trees, the forest, the garden etc. I'm happy although the experience is less intense. I've always been crazy about nature. It's this which brings me the greatest fulfilment. When everything is going fine, then that's what we mean.

GR: When you speak about fulfilment, can you say that you feel there is never anything missing?
DL: Absolutely! Body, soul and heart beat in unison. When I'm working outside with my hands, doing something I love, I feel there is nothing else I need. All my wants and all my needs are met. Besides, it's for that reason that I'm strongly torn between my career and my everyday life. A career is very demanding!

GR: Tell me about the differences which exist between the bloke I knew earlier and the one in front of me today.
DL: For a start, I've met the love of my life. Then I was an innocent. As far as the heart and the emotions go, I'm completely fulfilled.

GR: What sort of father are you?
DL: A willing one. Impatient sometimes but I try to do the best for my children to be good and happy and so they know Happiness with a capital H. If a child discovers that when he is very little, he'll believe in it throughout his life. I draw inspiration from my own life. I know it's the little everyday things which make us aware of what is true happiness. So I do everything possible to make their life good, beautiful and pleasant without responding to all their wants. I'm not at all a sugar-daddy. I prefer to teach them about peace, love, fun and pleasure. My parents brought me up this way and that has allowed me to live relatively happily.

GR: Your parents knew there were some essential things to understand about life?
DL: Absolutely! At least two things: to be respected and to respect others; to be loved and to love others. From that beginning, everything becomes possible.

GR: And to become handsome like you are, because the exterior reflects the interior!
DL: If you say so! (Smiles)

GR: Is life for you a game which you must know how to play or a battle which must be joined?
DL: It's more a game than a battle. I try to look at everything with lots of humour and fun instead of seeing it as a battle where one grinds one's teeth and where suffering must be inevitable. It's obvious that one should be able to see both sides of the coin. It's the story of the half-empty or the half-full glass. For myself, I always try to see it as half-full. Note that it's not always that simple since each day one must start again.

GR: What are your biggest battles?
DL: Personally, I have a lot of trouble in my life in staying quiet. It's illogical because I'm someone who hides away, who doesn't make much noise. Sometimes I'm even forced to kick myself up the backside because my work demands it.

GR: Is there an obstacle between you and money? Your life seems very successful, whereas there are many poor artistes ...
DL: I can't say I don't have some problems with money. If money pleases me it's to meet my needs and to acquire a certain independence. Money has become so much a way of having power. The futurologist Alvin Toffler contends that knowledge is about to replace money. If you think about it a bit, it's still a vicious circle because, in the end, knowledge brings in money …. so power!

GR: All that's very complicated!
DL: Yes, and I really don’t have an answer. For me, money is always linked with power, comfort, exploitation, weapons, wealth and poverty. For me it was impossible to exploit people to make money, Sometimes I have problems in seeing the difference between what I do and what the factory manager does. In my mind it's a problem which is far from being sorted out. I would really like to have a clear understanding of this question and move on. Whilst waiting, I comfort myself by telling myself that I'm not rich. I tell you, I really don't want to be rich.

GR: Do you believe that there is justice in this world?
DL: No. A large proportion of people on this planet don't have the minimum needed to live well and to be able to develop their bodies and, above all, their minds. So they are not able to free themselves to reach their full potential, to get to know how to be completely human. For me, it's still one of the worst injustices.

GR: Do you believe we are a channel through which the Force passes?
DL: Above all, I believe we are an outward sign of this Force.

GR: So you are a believer?
DL: In a way, yes. It's this which allows me to live in peace with myself, with life, with those who have come before me and with those who will outlive me. I know that I am part of this Force which we are speaking about and that this Force is beyond my understanding. For me, it's obvious that I'm going towards something, that I'm evolving all the time.

GR: In your opinion, do your children carry your genes?
DL: Absolutely! As I have my grandfather's and I have inherited the good points and the bad points of my father. In fact we are the sum of all those who have come before us.

GR: When all our wishes come true, aren't we in danger of becoming blasé and disillusioned?
DL: It's true but not so in my case. I'm far from having got to the top. I've had some nice triumphs in my life, in any case, enough to gain a certain confidence in myself and to be able to tell myself that I can work wonders with things that are worth the effort. You know I've been analysed so much that I've been stripped naked! In the end one always has to start again each time one does something new. Nothing ever comes easy. Some time ago I returned from Thailand bringing back a saying of Buddha in my suitcase, "He who sits back on his victories has already begun to lose all he has won."

GR: You are a really well-balanced person. Have you a formula to give us which we could all follow?
DL: There is no magic formula. Each person must find what suits him, find his problems and sort them out and then move on to something else. There comes a time in one's life when there is a bit less trouble, when the source of the disruptions fades away. That's how I try to see it. But don't think that my life is dull! Each day some complication occurs but I try to cut out the things which disturb me most of all. These things appear as one goes along.

GR: How do you cope?
DL: By thinking about it and by meeting up with those people who've helped me and, above all, by not feeling discontented with my lot. By finding time for others, by living just for this moment and, in the end, by doing nothing. To forget is vital. To navel-gaze all the time is the inescapable source of anxiety.

GR: In fact, the principal aim of Man is to help one another?
DL: By helping yourself you help others. It's important to be good and one can't be it without finding equilibrium in spite of that duality which one meets up with in life. Wise men throughout the ages speak to us of yin and yang, of black and white, of good and evil.

GR: In your opinion, is it not then necessary to have a perfect catch-phrase of your own and to say to yourself, "No wind can blow me off course nor change the path of my destiny."
DL: To think that way is to snap your fingers at the wind which is often stronger than you think, it's very conceited to think oneself stronger than life itself. Life is much stronger than each one of us! Even as I draw my last breath, I greatly doubt that I'll be able to say, "At last I made it …" For the moment, I prefer to believe it's urging me to accept things as they are with as much equanimity as possible.