Let us look at another aspect of these well-known words from our Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty , and the pursuit of Happiness.”

 I did not just make up those words “pursuit of Happiness” out of the blue. We in the Continental Congress had talked about them for months. John Locke had written in 1690 in his Second Treatise about the mutual preservation of lives, liberty and property. We chose not to use “property” in our Declaration of Independence, however, because slaves were considered property, and we did not want to say that our Creator granted owners such property. Thus we used Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Human rights were more important to us than property rights. We did not abolish slavery in the Declaration, and for that we can be faulted. But at least we were able to affirm the pursuit of Happiness as a national goal, instead of the right to own property, especially human property.

What did we mean by the “pursuit of Happiness?” We Founders had varied opinions about what constituted happiness. Was it material basics that would bring happiness? Or extravagant material wealth? Or having a family? Or having a decentralized government? Or having a country where the Christian religion would be central to governance? Or the separation of church and state? Or the happiness of learning? We had many different interpretations of happiness then, and no doubt there are just as many interpretations today throughout the land, which is to be expected in our democracy.

At the time of the Revolution, we needed to be direct and forceful in expressing our need to pursue our own national happiness and independence. Our power at that time was limited, compared to the power of several countries in the world. But today we are the only superpower, so our decisions about our own happiness have great impact on people everywhere on earth. For example, at the Earth Summit in Brazil in 1992, our country was asked to join with the rest of the world to seriously tackle the environmental degradation of earth that science was showing to be a reality. After many months of education and negotiations before the Earth Summit, and after two weeks of intense work at the Earth Summit itself, President George H.W. Bush said the bottom line is that the American lifestyle is not up for negotiation. In other words, we will go along with the rest of the world only to the extent that our own happiness is not compromised, however we choose to define our happiness. I suspect that this attitude we expressed through our President comes at least in part from the use of “pursuit of Happiness” in the Declaration of Independence. My own opinion is that our country missed an opportunity at the Earth Summit for Americans to show that the happiness of others, and of the earth as well, is as important as our own happiness. 

Presidents throughout our history, Republican and Democratic alike, have used the phrase “pursuit of Happiness” to help gain support for war. Current President George W. Bush said on June 18, 2002,  “We don’t conquer peoples; we liberate people, because we hold true to our values of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” But the question must always be asked, whose happiness are we talking about, ours or the people we are liberating? Happiness as a goal depends also on the other country’s perceptions, desires, expectations, religions, educational levels, and a myriad of other factors. I seriously doubt that we have taken enough of these factors into consideration in this current war on terror, and thus the line between conquering and “liberating for happiness” is considerably blurred at this time. We need a better understanding of our “enemy,” or we become our own worst enemy.

I think about what makes me most happy. It is when I do something loving for someone, or they do something loving for me. Regardless of what task I might be working on, if during the process of it, during the pursuit, I treat someone with compassion, caring, love, give them food and shelter, then I feel happy myself. I know this sounds pretty simple, but maybe it is that simple. I think that over the past few decades our country has sometimes forgotten that what will make us happy and secure as a nation is to treat the rest of the world with compassion, love, generosity, understanding, and dignity. Of course, there are also times when we must defend ourselves, even with force, in order to continue to have the opportunity of realizing our own happiness, and extending happiness to others. There is that old saying that if you wish to offer the tiger peace, you must first restrain him, or be eaten in the process. I think that we have gotten the restraint part of the balance down pat, but we haven’t done so well over the past few years on the other part, seeing the need to cooperate with the rest of the world in simple and sensible and peaceful ways. We seem to be hung up on independence when cooperation has been needed, and we have focused on our own pursuit of happiness as a goal instead of a process that includes others, and this behavior has greatly lessened our own national security.

Perhaps we Founders should have written “Happiness of pursuit.” Maybe we had it backwards. Perhaps happiness is found in the process of pursuing life, and depends on how we treat others during the pursuit, rather than on some goal of happiness in the future. I believe that God is happy, not angry, and thus God could not create that which is not happy as well. God couldn’t create us as less than happy, with a goal of someday being happy at the end of our long pursuit. What kind of God would create us to spend our lives, or many lifetimes even, pursuing happiness in a world or universe that provides us with so many examples of lack of happiness? I now believe that our Creator does not give us the pursuit of happiness, but actually gives us happiness from the start, even if we do not recognize this happiness, moment by moment. The happiness that we were given is eternal, and comes from the fact that we are all powerful, loving creators ourselves, and we are capable of realizing that happiness here and now, as individuals and as nations. I know this sounds idealistic and impractical, which was a criticism of me occasionally back in Revolutionary days as well, but I still trust that we humans are inherently good, and our goodness can be exhibited in each moment, happily so. I hope that we can all reflect back on the principles stated in the Declaration of Independence and see the Golden Rule assumed there also, and thus as a nation seek to honor and promote the happiness of all beings.