No passport to happiness

The Vesak celebrations at orchard that just passed, had the theme "passport to
happiness"

I somehow reflected on that (I would like to think meditated but I didn't LOL) and it
seems to me, that that might not be a perfect theme or tagline.
By focusing on a Passport, it seems to indicate the need of external factors to
bring about my happiness. You need to obtain a passport before you can go where
happiness is. Of course it can be read in more than one way, but the immediate one
that jumped out at me was external places and events.

Happiness, our own happiness, should be controlled by ourselves, by our mind, and
not solely dependent on what you have, where you go, or even who you hang out with.
And yes, we should have that internal passport which can lead us to happiness, which
is the four approaches of hearing, contemplating, cultivating, and realizing.
But so very often, people missed that, and zoom in straight to the historical
monuments, locations of Buddhism, or the free distribution books, as if having loads
(without the effort of the accompanying practice) is sufficient.
We are totally missing the point. We create our own happiness! And we do not need an
external passport for that.
Externalities can only bring us that far. At the end of the day, it is still our own
cultivation and reliance that matters.

Of course, it is different for Vesak at orchard coz it was a marketing strategy to
attract more. But I can't help feel that the meaning of happiness is skewed in this
sense. Because many are not touched on the important level of real practice.