Finding Virtue in Popular Vice

The article No Regrets: Pick Play Over Work discusses a phenomenon many people are familiar with, either through personal experience or others' stories. Many people are familiar with the idea of the aging person who suddenly regrets all the time they spent at work instead of doing they would have enjoyed more. Right off the bat I can come up with a list of songs whose narrators suddenly realize they have better things to do with their life.

The author is correct when she talks about having a necessary balance between work and play, but I strongly object to what seems to be her definition of virtue and vice. By the time I reached the statement saying that "People tend to overemphasize virtue at the expense of vice," I realized what the problem seemed to be. "Virtue" is what's going to put you ahead in life, so to speak; going to work, making money, getting better jobs, putting all these things before your own desires; hard work, dedication, self-restraint. "Vice" is anything that isn't going to put you ahead; giving in to the desire to do something relaxing, take an afternoon off, go for a walk; not restraining yourself from doing anything that has no higher purpose.

I can't imagine everyone who ends up regretting all they time they spent denying themselves for their jobs, their health, or whatever else seemed so important, at the expense of time spent with family, an afternoon reading a book, or eating an ice cream cone every once in a while, are really regretting acting virtuously. What they're regretting, I would guess, is the lack of balance. They're finally seeing that there is something good and worthwhile in the activities they ignored. It's true that to spend all one's time avoiding work and to act only for the moment, only aiming for what is pleasurable, is a vice to be avoided. Virtue is found in the balance. In not going to either extreme, but instead understanding what the proper balance is, and neither indulging too much nor restricting oneself too much. The author of this article, and probably many other people, are coming to the correct idea - if we miss the balance by restricting ourselves from doing anything, we'll regret it - without understanding that sometimes the restriction is a bad thing, and should be avoided not only because we will regret it later in life.. but because in avoiding complete restriction, we can actually find the proper balance. We can find the virtue.