Editorial November 28, 1988 Issue

Is it all right to be happy?

William E. Moody

There are books and movies that make us laugh. There are funny people and incidents. There are the smiles of little children on the playground, or a concert in the park on a summer evening, or the stunning beauty of a spectacular mountain view—things that fill us with good and happy feelings.

But there can also be times when, looking at life from a global perspective, we find the tragedies of so many of the world's people weighing heavily against the simple joys and pleasures of our own experience. And, of course, often there are plenty of hard struggles to contend with close at hand. It's easy to see why the serious concerns we may feel about the human condition can sometimes cause us to question whether we really have a legitimate right to be happy.

Still, it seems to be written into the hearts of men and women everywhere that happiness is something we all should be able to have. Even great documents, which were designed to set the course of history, can attest to this. The Declaration of Independence, for example, one of the founding documents of the United States, speaks of self-evident truths and of certain rights that should never be abrogated—"that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

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