The author Toni Morrison recently gave a commencement address to the students at Rutgers University, in which she made the following comment: “I have often wished that Jefferson had not used the phrase “the pursuit of happiness” [in the Declaration of Independence preamble]. I would rather he had written “life, liberty, and the pursuit of meaningfulness” or “integrity” or “truth.” I know that happiness has been the real, if covert, goal of your labors here. I know that it informs your choice of companions and the profession you will enter. But I urge you, please don’t settle for happiness. It’s not good enough. Personal success devoid of meaningfulness, free of a steady commitment to social justice, that’s more than a barren life; it’s a trivial one. It’s looking good instead of doing good.”
I wish people could hear those words from that commencement speech, for it offers an important challenge to us as people of faith. I am not well-informed about the thought processes that guided Jefferson, as he struggled to put into words the ideals of our fledgling nation. I know that he was well-read and influenced by the Enlightenment philosophy of his age (e.g., John Locke). I am sure that the idea of a full democracy, as opposed to a monarch-led, hierarchical system of government, opened the door to a range of individual freedoms that had scarcely been imagined (much less realized) in Western history up to that point in time. Morrison remarked that an earlier draft of the Declaration preamble had used the phrase “the pursuit of property,” but that it was later amended to “pursuit of happiness.” Both speak to ideals of self-determinism and individual liberty. But in the context of modern society, I am afraid that Jefferson’s word choice no longer bears positive fruit.
To pursue happiness is a task too easily defined from personal perspectives. By that I mean that we append onto Jefferson’s phrase (the pursuit of happiness) personal adjectives, so that suddenly our foundational document suggests that America exists to safeguard “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for me.” Suddenly the point of reference has shrunk from being national and communal in focus to being individualistic and personal in focus. This interpretative move is counter-productive, for there is no way a democracy can serve the common needs of a commonwealth if its founding principles are shaped solely by the desire to safeguard individual desires and wants. Imagine the chaos in a family if all decisions can be challenged because one person in the household isn’t having his or her total desires met. There are compromises inherent in our life together–whether that involves families deciding which particular television show will be watched that evening or city governments working out how to distribute tax revenues to provide services for the larger public.
I like the idea of our democracy being committed to safeguarding the right of each individual to pursue meaningfulness or integrity or truth. Those terms still bespeak a quality of personal choice, but the horizon toward which the individual aspires is always a communal, shared horizon. Meaningfulness for one person necessarily asks about the well-being of one’s neighbor, for how can something be truthful and “meaning-full” if the expression of it involves the denigration of someone else? How can my life be considered one marked by integrity if my decisions and actions are unjust and unkind toward another?
Aspirational language has been at the heart of the American historical experience, coupled with a commitment to the “self-evident” quality of doing what is right. Our faith would go farther and remind us that God, too, wills the best for us and calls us to aspire for the greater goods. (I Corinthians 12:31, “Strive for the greater gifts and I will show you a still more excellent way.”) The example of Christ and the Spirit of God calls us to pursue something deeper than happiness: we are called to seek joy, to work for justice, to trust in God’s gift of perfect peace. All of that involves something more than the contemporary definition of being happy. Which is a good thing. Really.
In deciding what we should pursue in this life, let us do so faithfully, mindful that we walk farthest when we walk together, and there are many, many things of greater value in this life than the mere experience of personal happiness.