The Moral Bucket List

“ABOUT once a month I run across a person who radiates an inner light. These people can be in any walk of life. They seem deeply good. They listen well. They make you feel funny and valued. You often catch them looking after other people and as they do so their laugh is musical and their manner is infused with gratitude. They are not thinking about what wonderful work they are doing. They are not thinking about themselves at all.”

Brooks opens the essay with an image of the kind of person he is going to persuade the reader to be more like, the person who “radiates inner light.” Inner light is a symbol of moral achievement. These lines present the reader with an aspirational image, describing in detail how these individuals make other people feel and identifying them with positive language like “wonderful” and “musical.”

“A few years ago I realized that I wanted to be a bit more like those people. I realized that if I wanted to do that I was going to have to work harder to save my own soul. I was going to have to have the sort of moral adventures that produce that kind of goodness. I was going to have to be better at balancing my life.”

Brooks takes a confessional tone and elicits readers’ sympathy by drawing them into his confidence with his admission of weakness. At the same time, Brooks initiates the idea that “inner light” can be achieved through moral striving. He also informs readers that the goal is a balance between internal fulfillment and external success.

“It occurred to me that there were two sets of virtues, the résumé virtues and the eulogy virtues. The résumé virtues are the skills you bring to the marketplace. The eulogy virtues are the ones that are talked about at your funeral—whether you were kind, brave, honest or faithful. Were you capable of deep love?”

Brooks builds one of the central themes of the essay, the juxtaposition of internal, eulogy virtues with external, resume virtues. This quote equates resume virtues with the marketplace and career success and the eulogy virtues with the depth of character that radiates “inner light.” Simultaneously, this quote emphasizes the cursory nature—and therefore the moral emptiness—of the marketplace.