Happiness in Connection

In what ways are we individually responsible for our own happiness and in what ways are we dependent on our relationships? This year’s theme invites you to explore the balance between individual responsibility for happiness and the role that relationships—whether with other people, animals, nature, ideas, or the world at large—play in shaping it. Research reveals that young adults are facing a crisis of unhappiness and disconnection. How might classic texts help us frame the pursuit of happiness through the lens of relationship? What timeless wisdom from these texts is timely to our theme? We invite you to engage seriously with at least one core text. Some authors you might explore include: Confucius, The Analects Epicurus Zhuangzi Plato, Symposium Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics The Pali Canon Bhagavad Gita Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Bible: The Gospels Leo Tolstoy Emily Dickinson Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own Toni Morrison, Beloved