Thoughts on Life, Liberty
and the Pursuit of Happiness

"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." - Thomas Jefferson

What a poetic phrase. According to The Declaration of Independence, I am endowed by my Creator with these as "unalienable" rights. In other words, these rights can not be taken away, which is not to say that these rights can not be violated. While I believe these rights are common to all of mankind, the truth is, these rights can and often will be denied to each one of us. These rights may also be sacrificed, as demonstrated by our armed forces through more than two centuries.

Capital punishment violates a person's "right to life", as does war, abortion, and euthanasia. The Declaration of Independence leaves the definition of "life" open to interpretation, which has lead many people to expand it to mean "quality" of life. The criminal is deemed unfit to live; the enemy is deemed unworthy to live; unwanted children are judged to be better off not living; as are the terminally ill. None of these "quality" judgements nullifies anyone's "right" to live. They simply violate that right.

Liberty is a perception. We are all free to think and do as we please. The limitation to this right lies mainly in where we, as individuals, draw our personal lines. The story of the elephant trainer illustrates my point quite well. The trainer secures the infant elephant with a mighty chain, hitched to a formidable post. As the elephant grows larger,the trainer replaces the chain with a weaker tether, such as rope, secured to a stake. When the elephant is mature, the rope has been replaced with string, tied to a blade of grass. By this time, the elephant is certainly strong enough to escape the string, but has long ago stopped resisting what he first knew as chains. We all have many strings in our lives, tied to blades of grass.

Our right to liberty may also limited by our fear of consequences. Free thinking and free behavior are not always rewarded. Freedom of thought, freedom of behavior, the liberties we cherish so in name, are rarely cherished in action. Yet again, these rights are violated, they are denied, but they are not taken away.

The pursuit of happiness. Does this mean that I am guaranteed happiness in my life? Does this mean I must do all the feel-good things that life has to offer? Of course not, although this is certainly a right that can not be taken away from me. Abraham Lincoln summed it up best for me when he said, "A man is likely to be just about as happy as he makes his mind up to be."

So, the pursuit of happiness is a journey we take from within; liberty is the freedom we allow ourselves; and life is the vessel which carries both our happiness and our freedom.

Copyright © 1996 Kathy L. Casper. All rights reserved.