...and the pursuit of happiness.

All people (it can legitimately be assumed) want to be happy. This is such a fundamental desire that Thomas Jefferson included it in the U.S. 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."

This phrase is based on the writings of the English writer John Locke, who expressed that "no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions. ( Locke, John (1690). Two Treatises of Government)"

A point of view worth considering is that it's the pursuit of happiness in the contemporary understanding of the word pursuit (i.e., to pursue or chase after) that is the source of much frustration and disillusionment for many people today.

An early judicial opinion, Butchers' Union Co. v. Crescent City Co., 111 U.S. 746 (1883), considered Jefferson's phrase in the Declaration of Independence to refer to one's economic vocation of choice rather than the more transient search for emotional fulfillment. U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Johnson Field, in his concurring opinion to Associate Justice Samuel Freeman Miller's opinion, wrote:

"Among these inalienable rights, as proclaimed in that great document, is the right of men to pursue their happiness, by which is meant the right to pursue any lawful business or vocation, in any manner not inconsistent with the equal rights of others, which may increase their prosperity or develop their faculties, so as to give to them their highest enjoyment."

For many, our contemporary understanding of the meaning of pursuit puts happiness outside of ourselves; it positions it as something to be attained; and, when placed within the context of the Declaration of Independence's "unalienable rights" language, it's easy to infer that we are entitled to happiness.

Using the original meaning of the word, pursuit means practice - as in the right to practice one's vocation. Happiness is not a right that is owed me, I am entitled to nothing other than the freedom to practice a vocation of my choosing. If that should result in me feeling happy so much the better.

Practice. What is it that, by practicing it on a daily basis, will result in my being happy - even fulfilled - in my life? Great question to ask myself. And, it places the responsibility for being happy in my life squarely where it belongs - on me.

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Also as soon as I can take a couple photos I am going to post a couple newsy bits about last Monday's Portrait Party. Please check back to see what's up.