The Moral Bucket List

Another dominant theme of Brooks’s essay is the journey of moral development through experience. “The Moral Bucket List” argues that people can access the richest meaning of their lives by cultivating inner character. Inner character, in turn, is forged through overcoming challenges, first a confrontation with the self, then deep love of others, and finally commitment to larger causes. Brooks encapsulates this idea in the image of the “road to character” (Paragraph 7).

The question of how to live a meaningful life and its connection to morality has historically been addressed by two fields of thought: religion and philosophy. For the primary monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), being moral and living a purposeful life mean following a set of beliefs and rituals laid out by religious institutions in the service of worshipping god. The guidelines of moral behavior are set by religious organizations and communities.

Alongside the monotheistic religions, Western culture’s notions of morality are most directly influenced by moral philosophy, beginning with Plato and Aristotle. Different from religion’s emphasis on following a set of guidelines and rituals, in ancient philosophy, morality arises from an individual’s internal character. Plato defined the best life as one characterized by the search for wisdom. For Aristotle, morality begins with self-knowledge and training in virtuous habits. Later Western philosophers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and David Hume in the 18th century, and John Dewey in the 20th, argued that moral development was a form of education acquired through personal experience.

Brooks draws on the work of these philosophers in his depiction of morality as a journey of experiences and lessons. “Wonderful people,” he writes, “are made not born” (Paragraph 8). For Brooks, the moral journey unfolds through a set of challenges through which the individual learns, and the learning process comprises cycles of defeat and redemption. The individual fails, understands their failure, and then learns from it, ultimately gaining a deeper sense of humility and gratitude. He calls the people on this path “stumblers” because failure is the route to success. For Brooks, as for Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau, Hume, and Dewey, morality is grounded in the individual’s ability to see their weaknesses with clarity, with “unvarnished honesty,” which motivates and enables them to continue their education and strive to continue to better themselves. Because they see themselves clearly, because they can overcome themselves, and because they commit themselves to serving the people and causes they love, the stumblers experience moments of true joy.

Another salient theme in “The Moral Bucket List” is the tension between external achievement and internal character. Brooks introduces this theme in the essay’s opening lines when he equates “inner light” with “depth of character” and an “unfakeable inner virtue” (Paragraph 1). Brooks’s emphasis on the “inner” nature of this light, or goodness, foregrounds a contrast between internal and external to which he returns throughout the essay. Inner light, a symbol of moral achievement, finds external expression through individuals’ small, intimate interactions with others. In other words, “inner light” is made visible in the ways these individuals make other people feel comfortable and valued, bring genuine joy to their encounters, and move with humility and gratitude.

In opposition to this joyful expression of inner light stand the “external achievements” conventionally celebrated by American culture—career success, status, and money. Brooks admits that while he has reached a level of career success, he lacks the depth of character exhibited by those with an inner light. Unlike a purposeful life, which offers moments of joy and gratitude, external ambition is “never satisfied”; it never allows us to rest. Exclusively pursuing external ambition robs people of happiness and satisfaction because it fosters an “unconscious boredom” and mediocrity that leaves unexplored the deeper parts of the person. Brooks expresses the distinction between moral achievement and career achievement through the imagery of depth versus surface and internal versus external.

This contrast is most poignantly expressed in his distinction between “resume virtues” and “eulogy virtues.” Brooks defines resume virtues as those that one brings to the marketplace, like ambition and perfectionism. The term “resume” denotes an external or surface existence. A resume is a document that tersely outlines an individual’s educational and professional achievements. The eulogy virtues, on the other hand, are the ones talked about at a funeral, internal characteristics such as kindness, bravery, honesty, and faithfulness.

The tension between external and internal achievement expresses Brooks’s subtle critique of American culture, and he returns to it in each entry in his moral bucket list, which each begins with a statement about how American culture values external qualities of prestige, money, and career. Each entry then proceeds to explain how those on the road to character minimize external ambitions to focus on internal cultivation.

Although Brooks establishes a tension between internal and external, resume and eulogy, he suggests that a meaningful life has room for both if they are kept in “balance.” People with inner light do not eschew external ambition entirely; rather, he says, “their inner and outer ambitions are strong and in balance” (Paragraph 29).