the PURSUIT of happiness

one of my friends recently asked me who wrote the phrase "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." it was Thomas Jefferson, although he basically just altered an original quote by John Locke. anyway, it got me thinking. yes, this is going to be another one of my "deep thought" posts... bear with me. in the movie, the pursuit of happyness with Will Smith, he says, "it was right then that I started thinking about Thomas Jefferson on the Declaration of Independence and the part about our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. and I remember thinking how did he know to put the pursuit part in there? that maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue and maybe we can actually never have it. no matter what. how did he know that?" I remember having a pretty heated conversation with some friends and Professor Roberds in college about whether or not we can ever really achieve true happiness in this life, and I still don't know whether or not I believe we can. but, that isn't what I want to focus on. it's the pursuit. whether we believe we can achieve it or not, the important thing is that we keep trying. our pursuit for happiness may be a life-long adventure, it may seem never-ending, but we really shouldn't ever give up. can you imagine if we all did? ...maybe the pursuit is what makes us happiest. maybe its the work. I know that I am happiest when I am busy, and when I am working on my goals. ...anyway, just some thoughts.