Better than we found it.
The first few times I employed the words, "leave the world better than you found it," I was not aware they were most likely recorded in an oath undertaken by young men in Greece. I had been guided to use the theme in strategy articulation at Arthur Andersen, which was delightful because I had been taught the phrase as a maxim during my childhood, later using it in the afterword of a book. A drive toward everlasting value transcends the self at the same time it grows a person. And pursuing value is always engaging, individually and organizationally, if not generally productive -- as long as we think eternal, not ephemeral.
Ruins of the Parthenon. Sanford Robinson Gifford. 1880. Oil on canvas. Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Gallery Fund). National Gallery of Art.
The science of happiness at work
Claytoya Tugwell. In many workplaces, emotions are treated like background noise: tolerated when positive, avoided when not. But positive emotion isn’t about being cheerful all the time. It’s about creating enough moments of joy, gratitude, and connection that people have the energy to keep going—especially when the work is hard. ... Feeling good is one thing—but people generally want to feel immersed in what they do. That’s what engagement is about—not compliance, but curiosity. Not just effort, but flow.
Our idea of happiness has gotten shallow
Kwame Anthony Appiah. The notion of happiness as choice-making swiftly migrated from economic models into the marrow of the broader culture. What was once a lifelong project shrank into a sequence of transactions. As the midcentury economy boomed, it didn’t just build wealth; it reconstructed desire. The good life, formerly the province of philosophers, was now a mainstay of the marketers: happiness packaged as the perfect lawn, the gleaming automobile, the immaculate kitchen with its humming refrigerator. We became, almost without noticing, what we bought. ... Happiness isn’t an optimization problem. It’s the shared work of making a world spacious enough to sustain the many ways free individuals choose to live, and sturdy enough to hold us all together.
From fifth-century Athens
The Ephebic Oath [via Stobaeus]. I will never bring reproach upon my hallowed arms, nor will I desert the comrade at whose side I stand, but I will defend our altars and our hearths, single-handed or supported by many. My native land I will not leave a diminished heritage but greater and better than when I received it. I will obey whoever is in authority and submit to the established laws and all others which the people shall harmoniously enact. If anyone tries to overthrow the constitution or disobeys it, I will not permit him, but will come to its defense, single-handed or with the support of all.
It's easy to say
Composer Henry Mancini on filmmaker Blake Edwards. Every time I read something that Blake writes, if I set my mind in the right direction and look carefully, I find something autobiographical in it.