Religion elective courses in this series called, On Being, are inspired by the vision and work of Peabody Award-winning broadcaster and New York Times best-selling author, Krista Tippett. On Being is a Peabody Award-winning public radio conversation and podcast, a Webby Award-winning website and online exploration, a publisher and public event convener. At its heart, On Being does well what each Pomfret School religion course also strives to do: open up the animating questions at the center of human life: What does it mean to be human, and how do we want to live? Each course within this series aims to explore elements of religious experience and expression, faith-seeking understanding, emerging paths of spirituality, and the development of individual and communal moral imagination. The work of these courses centers on human experience and some of life’s most significant questions, challenges, and pursuits. These courses will develop skills inherent in the art and practice of communication, reflection, creation, and being. Students will write essays, read novels, watch films, see art, practice conversation, and make their learning process visible in a variety of forms.
Can happiness be a project? Is the pursuit of happiness an intentional endeavor that can be practiced, learned, and discovered, or is happiness something that is simply attained as a byproduct of life, gained while people are busy making other plans? This course will set about the journey of considering these big questions in the context of defining happiness and determining how it may be attainable in life and in a lifetime. Students will seek to find what essential elements accompany happiness, and consider the biographies, stories, and examples of people’s lives who seem to have discovered this highly sought after and often elusive state of being. Through consideration and study of the lives of some of the world’s most famously happy people (the Dalai Lama, for example), as well as conducting research and interviews into the lives of some of the happiest people we know personally, the work of the course will allow the revelations and celebrations and sharing of what we discover of happiness to become our project. Open to sophomores, juniors and seniors or by departmental approval.