Every year in December I post an advent calendar on this journal for my friends to brighten up the darkest days of the year in the northern hemisphere.
Last year I provided a blessing each day, featuring all many different religions and cultures. The year before that I had an angel each day. This year I’m going to post about virtues.
What are virtues?
Just a quick glance at various online sources provides very different answers.
The Virtues Project defines “virtue” as “the essence of the human spirit and the content of our character”.
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a long and very interesting entry on “Virtue Ethics”. A virtue is defined as a trait of character in that essay: “a disposition which is well entrenched in its possessor, something that, as we say “goes all the way down”, unlike a habit such as being a tea-drinker — but the disposition in question, far from being a single track disposition to do honest actions, or even honest actions for certain reasons, is multi-track.” The text goes on to say that a virtuous life “is necessary for eudaimonia [happiness]. … virtue ethicists claim that a human life devoted to physical pleasure or the acquisition of wealth is not eudaimon, but a wasted life …”
The Catholic Encyclopedia offers a Christian interpretation: according to Saint Thomas “the essence of virtue may be gathered his brief but complete definition of virtue: “habitus operativus bonus”, an operative habit essentially good, as distinguished from vice, and operative habit essentially evil”.
Wikipedia offers a short summary on virtues in various contexts and cultures, up to the impact of virtues on modern positive psychology, as aspects of a stable and healthy personality.
When I asked you in this journal a few weeks ago what your favourite virtues are, no one argued about the existence of virtues. Instead, everyone who commented named one or more favourite virtues. At least in the sense of character traits they admire and regard as important in their lives.
Why virtues?
Enough reason, I think, to warrant to spend a few minutes every day to think about what kind of person we want to be, and which traits we admire and cherish in others.
At Christmas Christians celebrate that with Jesus Christ Light was born into the Darkness of the world.
In the mad and busy rush of mundane holiday celebrations all of us (no matter if we are Christians, atheists, Pagans or which faith we belong to) all too often forget what we actually want celebrate, no matter if it is the birth of Jesus Christ, the rebirth of light, or just the fact that we are lucky enough to have a family and friends we love and who love us. We’re stressed out and annoyed and frustrated, and we lose sight of who we are and who we want to be.
With this year’s theme of my advent calendar I would like to remind myself and all of my friends that it is within our power to bring light into this world. Virtues, I think, can help with that. They can remind us of what kind of person we want to be, and what we cherish in our friends and loved ones.
Therefore, I would like to invite all of you to read a post about a different virtue on my journal each day until Christmas.
Just like last year, there will be a picture/banner, an icon and a song for you to download and enjoy each day. Additionally, a short quote about the virtue of the day for those of you, who are in a hurry, and a longer text for those who want to immerse themselves in the various virtues.
If you want to make sure that you don’t miss any post, just add the tag “advent calendar 2007” to your notifications.
The advent calendar posts will be friends-locked. If I have not friended you yet, and you would like to view my advent calendar, please leave a comment, and I’ll add you to my flist at least until Christmas.