The Pursuit of Happiness

I imagine that even before the Founders of the United States of America penned their famous words, mankind has been engaged in a pursuit of happiness. We strive to improve our condition and situation, endeavoring to improve by day, week and year. We set goals to master skills, lose weight, and exercise. We make plans for dates, weekends and vacations. We save for cars, homes and retirement.

We endlessly look forward in a relentless pursuit of happiness. When we do it well and we do it right we achieve those goals and plans and we experience moments of happiness. Few experiences equal the pleasure felt when a skill is mastered, a vacation goes off without a hitch or when settling in to a new home. Those moments create the highlight reels of happiness that remind us that our day-to-day grind is worth it. We might say that we honor the Founders and their vision for our happiness by achieving any milestone and reaching every goal.

I feel certain that the words selected for the Declaration of Independence reflect deep deliberation and careful contemplation. The three inalienable rights included in the document are: Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. I suspect I am not alone in recognizing the absence of a qualifying phrase before Life and Liberty but the framers included "the pursuit of" before happiness.

Why might this be so? I imagine that only advertising executives are willing to promise happiness rather than a pursuit thereof. But life would prove a barren and dull experience if it were reduced to the endurance of toil and strife with brief flashes of joy when we realized our dreams. I would pity any soul who perceived that such was life.
The pursuit of happiness can only be understood when we see it more than a mere individual right.

We must make the pursuit of happiness a collective right that we vigorously protect and ensure. It may seem far easier to secure one's own life and liberty and in so doing experience the pursuit of individual happiness. But a quick reflection immediately reveals that happiness is richer when shared.

I know from repeated experience that, whenever I feel trapped trudging through a mundane morass of banality and routine, that my focus is on me. And when sight is focussed on one object the big picture becomes blurred and lost. It is past time that we look beyond ourselves and what we as individuals want. If I could bring about one social experience it would be this.

I wonder what would happen if we started to fight for the right of our very enemies to enjoy their pursuit of happiness. Do we believe that they have such a right? If so, who better to protect and guarantee that right, rather than us? Forget for a moment that you may disagree with them. Focus on their right to pursue happiness.

I have no idea what the results would be, I can only imagine.

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