From the HuffPost piece on the Big Joy project: “According to Simon-Thomas, “when we act in accordance with our values, in what is most meaningful and aligned with our sense of purpose … we feel better as people.”
It’s important to reflect on your values and write about what matters most to you. Maybe that’s spending time with family, practicing your religion, taking care of in-need animals or advocating for at-risk communities in your area — there is no wrong answer here. Your values are unique to you.”
Day 6 of the Big Joy project involved thinking about values and actions that align with them. This exercise didn’t really work for me. I mean on the one hand, it’s a bit too close to my day job. I’m a philosopher who thinks and writes about ethics and value theory. But also it seemed a bit too vague. There were values to rank (virtue, goodwill, unity, and fairness) but not enough description and not enough detail about the kind of ranking they had in mind.
That said, I understand that we’re happiest when we act in accordance with our values. I enjoyed our Canada Day party so much partly because I like bringing together people I care about. It made me really happy to see friends and family enjoying themselves. I think I smiled for a few days.
Celebrating friends and family and making connections were the main values but my values also affect the kind of event we host.
I like having low or no alcohol events. (Not quite “no.” I think maybe 6 beer were consumed but mostly it was a ‘pop and fizzy water’ party with some tinned mocktails thrown in.) There was a lot of vegetarian and vegan food. Again, there were some chicken dogs, but that wasn’t the main thing. The main things were the veggie skewers Sarah and I made, with haloumi and vegan haloumi. And friends brought some terrific additions.
You can read about Day 1 of Big Joy here and about what the Big Joy project is all about here.
Day 2 is here.
And Day 3 is here.
And Day 4 is here.
Day 5 is here.
