First, let me say that when we have such terrible events occurring in our country right now, it’s hard to write about anything else. I want to rant and rave about the injustice of everything that is happening, and it is good and right for me to do so. We all need to stand up and speak loudly when an ICE agent shoots and kills Renee Good on her own street after just dropping her six-year-old off at school. Or when hard-working people with no criminal record are dragged away from their jobs and sent off to God knows where for God knows how long. This is not my image of the America I grew up believing in. It is, in fact, much more reminiscent of Nazi Germany.

So let it be said, loud and clear, that I stand with all who believe this administration has committed yet another atrocity in an ever-growing series of atrocities under the leadership of tRump and his cronies. Our country—the world—needs us to wake up and change this regime before we bring more pain, death, and destruction to our planet.

Second, I read today from the happiness expert at Harvard, Arthur C. Brooks:

“The right goals are not money, power, pleasure, and fame… those are instrumental goals that lead to the less earthbound ultimate goals. The intrinsic goals should be faith, family, friendship, and work in which you earn your success and serve other people.”
—Arthur Brooks

I want to keep that in mind for myself, and also note that the values currently championed by many in power in our country are focused on what Brooks calls “instrumental goals.” Making these one’s aims leads not to happiness but rather to an insatiable desire for more, more, more. Intrinsic goals, on the other hand, are satisfying in themselves and offer the opportunity for connection, a sense of purpose, and fulfillment.

May our country shift from this incessant need for more power, more money, more pleasure, and more fame—all of which could be categorized as greed—so that we can find that deep-seated decency that resides in each of us and that is demonstrated by openness, honesty, collaboration, and truth.

Good Lord, deliver us.