Today's fortune: July 5, 2011

Today's fortune: Your virtues are priceless treasures.

Funny thing about this project: over the course of writing about 185 fortune cookie messages to this point, the word "virtue" has never appeared on this blog. Not even once.

Seriously.

You'd think that would be a big word in the land of fortune cookies, but apparently not.

Since it's a new word to this blog - and since the people I asked today struggled to come up with a definition - let's turn to trusty Dictionary.com for the straight dope. Virtue, according to the site, is "moral excellence; goodness; righteousness; conformity of one's life and conduct to moral and ethical principles; uprightness; rectitude; chastity; virginity."

Moral excellence. I like that, but then you could disappear down the rabbit hole with the question, "What is morality?"

This isn't an ethics blog. Well, it kind of is, I guess. But let's avoid that trap.

Now we know what a virtue is. But what are some examples of virtues? I Googled the matter, and an early link was the Wikipedia.com page for "Seven Virtues," which is a big deal in the Catholic church. The seven virtues are: Chastity, Temperance, Charity, Diligence, Patience, Kindness and Humility.

(Is it just my dirty mind, or would some of these make good ironic stripper names?)

This blog is an exercise in diligence, charity and humility. Diligence is another word for persistence, and writing a post every day for a year certainly tests my sticktoitiveness. On the charity front, I've given of myself financially during this project and also tried in little ways to make the world a better place. The one I relate to most, though, is humility.

Hell, it seems like I humiliate myself every day. I know that's not what humility means, but... It's certainly a humbling experience to write about everything in one's life. I don't hold much back from these posts. If it happens in my life, good or bad, chances are it will show up here. Don't believe me? Go ahead, take a swim through the archives on the right-hand column. Open up a post at random. Chances are, you'll read about something shitty in my life.

Since virtue seems to be a big deal in Catholicism, I asked a Catholic today for her opinion on the matter. Jamie and I are hosting our friend Kristen tonight. The first thing that came to her mind was the virtue of Patience. Her words are more eloquent than mine, so I'll let them finish out tonight's post.

"You always hear that phrase, 'Patience is a virtue,'" Kristen said. "And I've actually been thinking about that a lot lately. It would be nice if we could just say 'I want that to happen now,' but it doesn't work that way. I've been trying to tell myself it's important to be patient and wait for God's plan to unfold."