Williams in Good Will Hunting

I first learned of the apparent suicide of actor Robin Williams when I turned on the news the morning after. Shock and disbelief were followed by a poignant sadness. How ironic it is that someone so gifted at making others laugh experienced sadness so profound that it led him to end his own life. A monumentally talented human being, Williams achieved the outward signs of success – fame and fortune – while true happiness apparently eluded him.

This begs the question what is true happiness? The Founding Fathers had an answer for this. Drawing on Aristotle’s extended reflection on virtue, happiness, and friendship in “Nicomachean Ethics”, they considered true happiness an ultimate good (something pursued for its own sake and the most “choice-worthy”) and placed it on par with life and liberty in the Declaration of Independence. Far from being guaranteed, the pursuit of this ultimate good is an unalienable right given to every individual by his Creator, and for which governments are created to protect. Benjamin Franklin famously made this distinction in his statement “the Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.” In other words, true happiness is an activity, a worthy pursuit, and the aim of the American Republic. And while tragically, true happiness eluded Mr. Williams in his lifetime, his pursuit of it via his passion for ” . . . work and creating” brought happiness to his audience.