The Morality of Running

In a Christian Morality class I teach one of the text books defines morality of obligation and morality of happiness. In short the former describes when people follow the rules; the rules and the end of strictly following them are not the true desire. In morality of happiness people do follow what's right for the purpose of enjoying it. An obvious problem develops with regard to individual moral compass. We will not visit this terribly interesting topic today.

William C. Mattison, the author, often refers to daily exercise as an example. Ask yourself. Do you exercise for obligatory reasons, weight management, vanity, doctor's orders or for the joy experienced via exercise? Generally, when I pose questions like this one to students they try to harmonize. The students say they exercise for both reasons. That stated, my answer is without question a combination of both. I began exercising as a means to an end, a very specific one; I wanted to lose weight before our wedding day. 16 years later what started out as obligation has turned into a distinct source of happiness in my daily life.

This same author discusses morality in terms of the “Good Life” and happiness. That cuts to the core of why I exercise. I enjoy it. It promotes my idea of a good life and brings me a great deal of happiness.

 Run for the morality of it.

Tom