The Pursuit of Happiness

« Roll Reversal | Main | Obama's Supreme Choice »

Dr. George Vaillant, director of a 72-year Harvard study on aging, explains what makes people strive for fame and why dirty laundry symbolizes a perfect life

"How's this for the good life? You're rich, and you made the dough yourself. You're well into your 80s, and have spent hardly a day in the hospital. Your wife had a cancer scare, but she's recovered and by your side, just as she's been for more than 60 years. Asked to rate the marriage on a scale of 1 to 9, where 1 is perfectly miserable and 9 is perfectly happy, you circle the highest number. You've got two good kids, grandkids too. A survey asks you: 'If you had your life to live over again, what problem, if any, would you have sought help for and to whom would you have gone?' 'Probably I am fooling myself,'; you write,'but I don't think I would want to change anything.' If only we could take what you've done, reduce it to a set of rules, and apply it systematically."

File Under: American Ideas, Video