I recently finished a book entitled The Pursuit of Happiness by Jeffrey Rosen. The author analyzes the origin of that phrase in the Declaration of Independence by looking at the journals of founding fathers like Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, etc. What he found was that for these men trained in the classical tradition, the pursuit of happiness was actually the pursuit of virtue. They made lists of virtues that they wanted to work on to improve their lives and hence their happiness. St. Paul gives us a similar list in his first letter to the Corinthians. We might plug our names into the list to see where we need to grow in virtue. “I am patient, I am kind. I am not jealous, I am not pompous, I am not rude, I do not seek my own interests, I am not quick-tempered, I do not brood over injury, I do not rejoice over wrongdoing. I bear all things. I never fail.” Lots of virtues to work on!
