David Brooks wrote a beautiful article in the New York Times. His proposition is a simple one. Do we want to build our virtues as reflected in a career résumé, or do we want to build virtues in our life that might be remembered after we are gone - what Brooks calls a Eulogy Virtue.
Here's a quote from the article:
"Many of us are clearer on how to build an external career than on how to build inner character."
And again:
"You (can) live with an unconscious boredom, separated from the deepest meaning of life and the highest moral joys. Gradually, a humiliating gap opens between your actual self and your desired self, between you and those incandescent souls you sometimes meet."
I appreciate my résumé. My success in the world of work has taken me a long way. But if I want to go further - beyond this life - I need to add the kind of virtues that may be talked of at a funeral.
I don't expect for a moment that anything I do to build my inner life will be of the least use when one day I stand before God's throne. The only passport to eternal life is one stamped with the words 'Paid in full by Jesus Christ'. Nevertheless, to live well in this life requires me to build a set of Eulogy Virtues. Anything less will be less than satisfying. Anything less will be less than worthwhile.
