Pursuing the Pursuit of Happiness

Recently, I had the opportunity to watch a TV special about our third president, Thomas Jefferson. As famous as Jefferson is for being a statesmen and president, I believe his greatest contribution to the United States is as the author of the Declaration of Independence.

The part of the declaration, which I think best sums up the American cultural and historical trajectory, is the preamble and specifically the phrase, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

"We hold these truths to be self evident. That all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Life and liberty are self explanatory and clearly defined in our national laws. Life (in spite of our government's current allowance of legalized infanticide) and liberty are the essence of the American experience and we would be hard-pressed to identify some aspect of our daily lives that are not touched by these concepts legally and practically.

But when we get to the phrase "pursuit of happiness," the definitive waters become a little murky. John Locke, the English philosopher and ideological mentor to Jefferson, wrote in the 1600s "the necessity of pursuing happiness is the foundation of liberty. The highest perfection of intellectual nature lies in a careful and constant pursuit of happiness. We must take care, lest we mistake imaginary for real happiness."

Sounds a little like trying to explain how sausage is made, doesn't it?

I believe the pursuit of happiness is a spiritual and psychological goal, not to be confused with physical or sensual desires. Man finds his greatest expression in communicating his highest desires as those inherent to us as expressions of the Creator.

Maybe Jefferson's use of the phrase, though not original to him, was an attempt to show that the American experiment in self-determination should be seen as part of the march of civilization and a challenge to each of us to constantly allow the triumph of what Lincoln referred to as "the angels of our better nature."