Enjoying these three card spreads lately. I’m not necessarily interpreting them as time sequences (past - present - future) so much as little dramatic segments with a set-up, a climax and an outcome.

Back in Seattle, my landlord and good friend used to always quote somebody or other and say something to the effect of “Happiness can’t be achieved in isolation.” A little Googlemancy on that subject yields the following supportive quotation:

Happiness as a moral purpose, therefore, implies a social right to pursue happiness, and considers our relationship to others in society, which involves morality itself. We do not pursue happiness in isolation, but in and through our interactions with others. Thus, moral purpose is not a matter only of that which brings us our own happiness. It is a matter of our moral relationship to others as well. As members of a social group, all of whom are seeking happiness, our happiness necessarily has a link to, a common concern with, the happiness of others in the group.

“God has formed us moral agents… that we may promote the happiness of those with whom He has placed us in society, by acting honestly towards all, benevolently to those who fall within our way, respecting sacredly their rights, bodily and mental, and cherishing especially their freedom of conscience, as we value our own.” –Thomas Jefferson to Miles King, 1814.

That said, I’m off to go play the fool for a few hours in Mount Vernon and hopefully give that tired old Taney a run for his money.