Same clerk two weeks in a row. How many times had that happened? I could count on one hand. And she remembered me! How cool is that!
Told her I was giving her another chance because all her “positive thoughts”, as she had put it, hadn’t worked last week. She laughed that she would try harder this week – she really wanted something good to happen for me. Again, how many times has that happened? Someone really wants a great fortune to fall on someone else? More than we realize.
We live in a time when selfishness is given more encouragement than disinterested good. A time when the presumption is good for you means less for me. A time when stories are crafted to teach good fortune for you equates to victimhood for me.
At least that’s how the cultural noise says is true. But is that indeed truth? I choose to think not. I choose to think that we as a people want good for others as well as good for ourselves and not good at the expense of others.
This idea of good for all is enshrined in our founding document, the Declaration of Independence.
When Thomas Jefferson penned the words, “the pursuit of happiness”, he was not talking about the pursuit of pleasure. In the language of his day “happiness” equated with civic good. He was telling, we were telling, George III that our people wanted to be free from the shackles of providing for each other at the whim of someone who chooses for us how we are to share our good fortunes, be they large or small. We wanted the freedom to look after ourselves and to look after each other as we saw fit. We wanted the freedom to use our resources for the common good as we saw fit, not by coercion but by civic pride.
That choosing for ourselves can lead to selfishness and pleasure instead of civic happiness and common good is an ever-present temptation. It is a temptation we must fight with the help of our better angels. It is a fight I believe more of us are winning then are losing. We are a generous people. We fund good causes. We spend time in good works. We, deep in our souls, know the meaning of the “pursuit of happiness.”
The clerk at PLC, with her bright smile and joy in her eyes as she wished me well, she is evidence of that pursuit.
I will always strive to share that pursuit with her.