Tourism as Totemism: A Postmodern Approach to Durkheim

This is an essay I wrote for one of my first graduate level sociology classes last semester. The ending is kinda messy, I know, especially as I wrote it in the 5 hours before it was due, but I am too lazy to go and find my edited version I have worked on since I got it back. Nevertheless, I still find the subject matter very interesting and I hope you enjoy these ideas.

Beatrice Morlan

Sociology 610

 Friday, December 17, 2010 

Emile Durkheim

      Emile Durkheim once famously said that society is God. If this is true, then it would come as no surprise to him that today, in an increasingly individualistic society, people are turning to worldly events and phenomena to fulfill religious aspects and yearnings of life. I argue that tourism is one of those events. In The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1912), Durkheim defines religion as “a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, i.e. things set apart and forbidden – beliefs and practices which unite in one single moral community called a Church, [and] all those who adhere to them.” In this day of mass consumer market-economy societies, if one removes the aspect of Church from religion while maintaining spirituality and elements of the sacred in various aspects of life, a new religious form arises. It is only fitting that this new form is based in the foundations of consumerism and capitalism as well. With social facts of the 21st century so heavily based in these principles, our modern/postmodern ideas of the sacred must be formulated out of these shared aspects of the individual’s experience.
      Durkheim predicted that science would become the new religion as it is rational and made up of the same collective representations of society. Thus religion (and eventually science) is a form of social cohesion for Durkheim. It is a way for societies to unite and come together over a set of beliefs and practices about the way society functions. And in this day and age, so many people yearn for and “worship” commodities, both money and the things that it can buy; it does seem to be the uniting factor in this postmodern society. Tourism is based upon commodification and is the center of many societies, especially in Europe where most people spend up to several months on paid vacation leave (Urry 1990). People view being able to work and “play” as a necessary part of life as our wants have become our needs.
      Traditionally, Durkheim’s theory of totemism has been applied to conventional religious factors and characteristics of social life. He used totemism in order to describe the very basic and elementary forms of religion which he claims all other forms of religion sprouted from. By describing this sort of ancient cultural religion, he identified three classes of things which are deemed as sacred: the totemic emblem of a community, the animal or plant it considers to be sacred, and the members of the clan or community itself. As religion has evolved from this ancient form, people generally no longer worship plants or animals (with some exceptions), but various concepts and things have replaced the literal totems in order to maintain the idea of “totemism” in more modern religions. For instance, in Christianity, many evangelicals hold the symbol of the Cross (a sort of totemic emblem), Jesus Christ (a person, rather than a plant or animal), and their congregations and lifestyle to be sacred. So while literal totemism is hard to find in 21st century societies, it has evolved and is still very much present. Thus, I seek to answer the questions: Is tourism a modern form of totemism? Furthermore, is it an elementary form of modern religious life?

A New Field of Study
      While the sociology of tourism is a growing field in the social sciences, it still does not receive as much credit as it should for the role it plays in social life. Many academic discourses on tourism have developed in the past several decades, and it is not as broad of a discipline as other aspects of sociology. However, its affects on social life are major. With increasing consumerism in society, more and more people are partaking in tourist activities and commodifying various aspects of their cultures in order to market themselves to tourists. It almost seems as if tourism cannot be avoided in society, and yet so little is known about its ramifications on social life.
      With a relatively brief history, the sociology of tourism itself has only been around since the 1960s and 1970s with most of its foundational works being published in the 1980s. It is not a well-established field although many great sociologists have come from it; the sociology of tourism is still recognized as an intellectually underdeveloped area in the social sciences (Urry 2003). Tourism in the social sciences is generally studied under the guise of geography. It is not considered to fall under any of the major areas of sociology, while geography tourism claims to analyze the “sociology of tourism” itself (Wikipedia 2010).
      As there has not been a great variety of studies conducted on the issue of tourism, the study of tourism as a form of religion has not been done before. The sociology of tourism is concerned with concepts of authenticity (Boorstin 1964;Brunner 1994; Bryman 1995; Cohen 1972, 1979, 1988; Crick 1988; Duncan 1978;Eco 1986; Feifer 1985; Fjellman 1992; Holderness 1988; MacCannell 1973, 1989; McCrone 1998; Pearce and  Moscado 1986; Roche 2000; Turner and Ash 1975), pilgrimage (Cohen 1988; Eade and Sallnow 1991; Edensor 1998; Lett 1983; Shields 1991; Turner 1973, 1974), visuality (Barthes 1981; Crawshaw and Urry 1997; Gregory 1999; Hollingshead 2000; Larsen 2001; Lofgren 2000; Osborne 2000; Perkins and Thorns 1998; Taylor 1994; Urry 2002; Veijola and Jokinnen 1994; Wilson 1992), heritage (Dicks 2000; Home 1984; Judd and Fainstein 1999; Lumley 1988; Macdonald 1997; Samuel 1994; Vergo 1989), consumption (Campbell 1987; Harvey 1989; Poon 1993; Urry 2002; Ward and Hardy 1986), and services (Carlzon 1987; Crang 1993; Hochschild 1983; Mars and Nicod 1984; Marshall 1986; Pine 1987; Urry 2002; Wouters 1989). While some of these topics are related to religious issues such as pilgrimages, none directly deal with the way we worship and idealize consumerism and thus tourism in society.

John Urry’s Tourist Gaze

      My interest in studying tourism as totemism stems from a book by British sociologist, John Urry which identified “tourism as a signifier of broad economic, social, and cultural changes (1990). Tourism has indeed become a major part of society Indeed, “travel and tourism” has become the largest industry in the world accounting for 11.7 percent of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (WTTC, 2000: 8 in Urry 2001). It also accounts for 8 percent of world exports as well as 8 percent of all employment (ibid). Tourism has a hand in so many lives, thus it is critical to understand its implications on social solidarity to the point where it could be the main activity which holds some societies together.
      Urry claims that mass tourism had developed during the industrial age in which those who could afford to travel went to British seaside resorts in order to benefit from the acclaimed medicinal properties in the waters. Spa towns popped up everywhere and became a major attraction for the general public. Later on, the development of piers, amusement parks, and other attractions fostered the growth of tourism to become what it is today. Modes of tourism have shifted along with the economy, and now elements of tourism can be found permeating society.
      Urry’s description of tourism as a socially organized and systematized institution providing a departure from reality and everyday life strikes me as resonant of the liminality and sacredness of religion. Through an analysis of Durkheim’s concept of totemism utilizing an ideal type, I hope to provide an interpretation of tourism as a form of religion in the 21st century.

Totemism as an Ideal Type
      Ideal types, a typological term coined by Max Weber, are models which provide a simplified, generalization to describe and define the ideal attributes of a broader concept. Specific examples of an ideal type may meet some, but never all, of the characteristics set forth in an ideal type. In my analysis of totemism, developing an ideal type will help set forth a simple typology which tourism may or may not fit into. The tourist experience and the “tourist gaze” as defined by Urry (1990) is also “constructed through difference” as “there is no universal experience that is true for all tourists at all times.” This definition of tourism further substantiates my decision to use an ideal type. Also, it is worth noting that the definition of religion can be highly contested in some cases, especially when applied to a non-Church related category, so having an ideal type sets forth the definition which I will be following.
      In reading Durkheim’s work on totemism, particularly The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, I have come up with five characteristics which constitute his idea of what Totemism is:

1. Separation of the sacred from the profane
2. Inspires feelings of effervescence
3. Collective symbols representing both God and Society
4. Totems based on relatively insignificant animals or plants
5. Beliefs and practices which unite a moral community

As Weber laid forth in his definition of ideal types, something does not have to follow each of these characteristics exactly in order to fulfill its categorization as fitting this ideal type. Particularly with number 4, in today’s world I would not expect very many examples of cultures and concepts classified as totemism to have animals and plants as their totems. As Durkheim observed in his analysis of the Aborigine culture in Australia, the very most primordial forms of religion have made use of physical totems through animals and plants. With all the globalization, technological and academic developments which we abide by today, ideas of totems are more evanescent and metaphysical in most recognized forms of religion.
      While Durkheim does lay forth five characteristics of the elementary forms of religion in the conclusion of his book, for the purposes of my study I choose to focus solely on the more narrow typification and definition of totemism. It is important to note these forms of religious life which deal more with the spiritual characteristics of religion which are more difficult to identify in more modern “religions” such as science (which Durkheim himself identified as a type of religion) or possibly even tourism. Durkheim’s five elementary forms of religion, more closely related to religions with a God and/or Church, are the sacred and profane division of the world, the belief in souls, spirits, and mythical personalities, the belief in divinity, either local or multi-local , a negative or ascetic cult within the religion, and rites of oblation, communion, imitation, commemoration or expiation (Durkheim 1912). He argued that these forms were defined as communal experiences, thus distinguishing religion from magic. I would argue that it is not necessary to make a distinction between religion and magic in the 21st century as rationalization and science rule the day in terms of reasoning specific events and phenomena. If “God is society, writ large” according to Durkheim, the God has changed from a magical, mystical being to one who has developed the world out of science, reason, and capital. While the scientific aspect of society is important to his views of society, economics and capitalism in the market are becoming just as important as the rules of science and discovery. In fact, more often than not, people reason through their capital assets rather than through pure science, making it all the more necessary to understand how tourism plays a large role in ordering and governing the beliefs and actions of people.

Separation of the Sacred from the Profane
      Durkheim said that religious phenomena occur when there is a separation between the sacred from the profane. The sacred, or the realm of the extraordinary and the transcendent, should be markedly different from the profane, or the realm of everyday activities; however, what constitutes sacred versus profane aspects of life varies from culture to culture. The two primary influences on mankind are the empirical or physical elements and the collective or social elements of life. This is what causes people to split the world into the two categories of sacred and profane.  The difference between the two is most clear in totemism, the most basic form of religion. The concept of sanctity and the sacred is what unites all religions together.

      When searching the concept of tourism for the distinction between the sacred and the profane, it is not difficult to find. The entire reason why tourism appeals to so many people is that going on a vacation provides a “departure” and “a limited breaking with established routines and practices of everyday life” (Urry 1990). This element is present in every form of tourism; what is less consistent is the idea of sanctity within the realm of the sacred itself. There are times when tourism is motivated by yearnings for spirituality in nature, in important and historic places, and in actual religious church sites and events. However, there are also times when the aim of tourism is solely to get away from the profane, and not to experience the totality of the sacred. Both types of tourism still clearly denote the separation of the sacred from the profane whether or not each individual chooses to partake in the deeply spiritual or the shallow, entertaining elements of the sacred.
      Durkheim was a modernist, and as such he did not understand the postmodern ramifications of the aesthetic, entertaining appeal of the sacred, nor did he live in a time when people wanted a break from the profane, everyday life by seeking out purely leisure activities. Thus, with the definitions he has given regarding the separation of the sacred from the profane, I argue that entertainment falls under the category of the sacred. Such aspects of life are very, very different from reality; in fact, sometimes we travel to “sacred” places in order to experience completely different, socially fabricated realities such as Disneyland, the Happiest Place on Earth. Even with the postmodern elements of entertainment, Durkheim’s idea of God being fabricated and defined by society goes along with today’s amusement and entertainment centers being socially constructed to mean something important to society. Tourism is consumed because it “supposedly generates pleasurable experiences which are different from those typically encountered in everyday life” (Urry 1990, emphasis added). The media paints a picture of these places as being so sacred that millions of people make pilgrimages to locations like Hollywood just to be there and pour their money into the industry which has become something so strong and profound which society believes in. Hence, society is the media; society is tourism.


Inspires Feelings of Effervescence
      Durkheim’s defines effervescence as an intense state of being and perceived energy which alters the conditions of psychic activity in collective life. In such a state,

the vital energies become hyper-excited, the passions more intense, the sensations more powerful; there are indeed some that are produced at this moment. Man does not recognize himself; he feels somehow transformed and in consequence transforms his surroundings. (1912: 424)

When experiencing such collective effervescence, it can cause people to act differently than they would in their everyday life. This is part of the appeal of the sacred when separated from the profane. Surely such feelings occur when one is fulfilling the role of a tourist. Being in a different setting allows people to experience heightened sensations which may urge them to behave in ways they never would at home. For example, if someone from Utah signs up to go on an adventure tour to New Zealand, that person clearly wants to experience something different from America. Perhaps they want to feel the awe of standing next to what is considered by some to be the world’s most breathtaking scenery, to feel a spirituality of sorts, and perhaps they just want to get away from Utah no matter what the location. Either way, being in the moment at such a different, unfamiliar and beautiful location might inspire someone who is afraid of heights to go bungee jumping at the one of the world’s highest jumps. Whether or not such the effervescence associated with being a tourist allows people to change their behavior in such an extreme manner, tourism does allow people to act differently. The role of the tourist requires different behaviors, and contributes to the overall group or collective effervescence with the others who are also traveling.

Collective Symbols Representing both God and Society
      Tourism is socially constructed. As the industrial revolution and the rise of capitalism resulted in lengthened work days and work hours, there was an increasing “need” for vacations. Durkheim is famous for saying “God is society,” and as God is becoming increasingly ambiguous today, it can also be said that Capital is society. God is the head of ancient religions; people formulated the idea of a God, and worshiped that God. In such worship, they were also worshipping society. Today, money and capitalism governs everything. Yet, we invented capitalism as a way to cope with changes in feudal and more traditional forms of religion (see Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism). As God increasingly played a diminishing role in society, nationalism and science replaced religion as the guides for society. People were loyal to countries rather than to different religions and Gods. And now, with the rise of individualism, people are more about money and economics than ever before. Citizens of a country will not feel at ease with their nation unless it is in good economic health. People care about money and capitalistic ventures more than ever before, which has allowed tourism to thrive as one of the largest forms of Capital.

      Just as Capital has replaced God as the head of governments and nations in the 21st century, the ability to travel and be a tourist represents distinctions of class and status as a part of society. Urry (1990) identified travel and holidays as a crucial element of modern life and as a market of status. Society has developed tourism as one way to distinguish between social classes which is, once again, contingent upon the amount of economic Capital a person has. The need for a holiday “is the surest reflection of a modern discourse based on the idea that people’s physical and mental health will be restored if only they can ‘get away’ from time to time” (Urry 1990). Having the means to travel is venerated by society and serves as a method of reinforcing capital. However, as travel is estimated to take up 40 percent of available “free time” in places like England, it is one of the most important social constructions in today’s society.
 
Totems Based on Relatively Insignificant Animals or Plants
      Durkheim believed that the totem of a plant or animal was the expression of the sacred and the original focus of religious activity because it served as the emblem of the social group to which it belonged. Thus, whatever represents a social group becomes its totem and binds its members together; totems are collective symbols representing both God and society. In the case of tourism, such collective symbols would represent both capitalism and society instead.
      There are not so many instances in which insignificant animals or plants are used as such representations. Traditionally, the representations are sacred as material expressions of God and society. However, as the profane aspects of the world have become increasingly materialistic in nature, so have the totems which represent it. These are manifest in such material items as souvenirs and photographs documenting memories of the tourist experience. Wherever people go, items are marketed to travelers through venues of business and capitalism in order to provide a physical, material memory of the tourist experience through monetary means. These tokens of a trip serve as collective representations of capitalism and society reflecting the specific places from which they came. In traditional totemism, insignificant plants and animals were given very spiritual attributes and representations which provoked spiritual feelings and effervescence in communities. In modern totemism, souvenirs may also provoke spiritual feelings, representations, and effervescence relating to the place which was visited.


Beliefs and Practices which Unite a Moral Community
      Traditionally, religion provided a morality and solidarity by which a community was bound. It provided regulation and cohesiveness to make society function. In terms of tourism, it seems to be Capital which sets the rules and regulations by which governments and people function. Tourism, as a large part of Capitalism, brings people together forming strong bonds between radically different cultures all across the globe. In this age of a global economy and a global society, tourism offers camaraderie and understanding of different cultures and lifestyles through consumerism. Visiting a country one has never visited before gives that person a window into the lives of others, teaching them things they could never learn or experience otherwise. Tourism also vitalizes individuals as well as entire communities; individuals may use tourism as a break from everyday life, while communities may use tourism as a way to employ different strategies in their economic development plans. Tourism can boost the spirits of such a community and it can bring a feeling of happiness, confidence, and well-being to people who “need” to experience something new in life. People come together to share travel experiences, and people come together to give away tourist experiences. Especially when tourism helps to revitalize old and ancient cultures, experiencing such beliefs and practices on both ends bring a sense of cohesion to society.

      Tourism in today’s society pays homage to the capitalistic nature of society, and given the ideal type of totemism set forth at the beginning of this essay, is Tourism an elementary form of modern religious life? According to the characteristics of the ideal type, yes, Tourism is able to be called a form of totemism.
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Let It All Out

I have no idea where life is taking me. That's part of the beauty of everything, and yet as a planner in all senses of the term it makes me extremely anxious a lot of the time. Wouldn't life be so grand if we knew exactly what we were supposed to do at any specific time and place with whichever specific people we need to do it with? "But that's not the way it works." (Oh, how I love Relient K - what a great band!).

I feel like I don't have anything insightful to talk about this week, especially as I have been exhausted  from my looong trip to Seattle and from getting over this slight cold I acquired there. All I have been wanting to do is sleep, and yet this has been one of the busiest weeks of the semester. I haven't even had time to work on my thesis, and all I end up doing in my spare time is sleeping. Even getting outside to run feels like (more of) a chore because everything seems to be working against me accomplishing anything this week. I don't feel like I am getting anywhere, and in fact I feel like I am falling behind; 'tis the life of a graduate student, or so I have heard. And yet, looking back on it, this past week has been one of the most accomplished weeks of my life. Presenting my research in Seattle at the Pacific Sociological Association conference has shown me that I do have what it takes to succeed in academia as well as to make a difference and affect change in this world to at least some degree. I just need to do it! Unfortunately, it seems as if acting upon intentions is the hardest part of life. But isn't that because when we do what we say we are going to do and when we accomplish what we set out to do everything becomes all the more rewarding?

Over the past week, not only have I formally and successfully presented my research in an academic setting for the very first time, but I have also gotten a lot closer to one of my 2011 resolutions: to travel more! I have seen at least one new city this year: Seattle, the Emerald City. What a surprising city full of hidden gems and treasures. I am so excited to have experienced such a "foreign," exciting part of the world that I have never known before.  I still plan on visiting Chicago with Trish in September (hopefully for a half marathon) and London this summer with Tianqi. It really is only hitting me now that I am living out this part of my dreams! Travel has the profound ability to morph a part of ones soul into something entirely new given the sacred and profane nature of the experience one has in any sort of new environment. I wrote my term paper for my Graduate Classical Social Theory class on this aspect of tourism, but that is a topic for another day.

On top of everything else, I have also been blessed this week to prepare for the release of my book, Thais in Los Angeles, which I co-authored with my old boss at the Thai Community Development Center, Chancee Martorell. It comes out on Monday, March 21st (all proceeds go to the Thai CDC, a nonprofit organization which is a major basic needs resource center in Los Angeles and fights human trafficking), and I am so excited to finally be a published author!


I have accomplished a lot in my life, especially coming from my particular background. On my dad's side, as far as I know I will be the first one to have a graduate degree in a family that has only a handful of college graduates. On my mom's side, she is the only one who was able to come to America, and she gave up a lot to leave Thailand. I am reminded every day how lucky I am to have been born and raised in America with the opportunities I have available to me. Today, as I reflect on the successes of this week I realize how blessed I am in life. Counting your blessings does work wonders! Life seems so much more rich and full after such reflection. Meaning in life truly does develop out of a reflection on your lived experiences.

Called to Serve

Love cannot remain by itself -- it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service ~ Mother Teresa

Volunteering holds a special place in my heart. Growing up in the Mormon church, the value of service to others was instilled in my every being. Thus it is no surprise that one pillar of the four fold mission of the LDS church is to "care for the poor and needy." It's just something that we do, and gladly at that. Other activities and organizations I was involved in also encouraged such acts of kindness and service as well. It's second nature to me, although I don't get to do it as much as I would like. It's funny to me when people have such a difficult time with that, but I understand that sometimes service does involve stepping out of the comfort zone and making yourself vulnerable for the benefit of others. I have noticed at times when others seemed to be at a service project against their will, having a negative attitude would always prevent a person from seeing the good that came from the work they did as well as from experiencing the many personal benefits of volunteerism as well.

At a service project in Isla Mujeres, Mexico during an
Alternative Spring Break trip in 2009

Service learning provides so many opportunities for both the individual as well as the people they serve. The point is not to get something out of it, but indeed that is what happens every time. Wikipedia defines volunteering as 

the practice of people working on behalf of others or a particular cause without payment for their time and services. Volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity, intended to promote good or improve human quality of life, but people also volunteer for their own skill development, to meet others, to make contacts for possible employment, to have fun, and a variety of other reasons that could be considered self-serving.

Volunteerism indeed seeks to make the world a better place, and in turn volunteers receive the benefits of networking, resume building, as well as feeling good about themselves many times. Studying urban planning at the undergraduate level, many of my classmates are like me, wanting to change the world through their careers, their service, and their actions. Rather than theorize about what is wrong with the world, we wanted  to develop possible solutions. Since planning is a very localized profession, it seems to be more effective at identifying and targeting different social problems which need to be fixed. I found these principles to be very true when I took my honors seminar class with Professor Richard Sundeen on youth services in the nonprofit sector. Volunteerism was a major topic that came up often in our conversations. My ethics professor was also the director of the USC Volunteer Center having studied service learning for her doctoral dissertation. It seems that the world would not be able to function without service contributing to its areas of inefficiency and failure.

It's great to think about volunteerism and the nonprofit sector in terms of all that it does for society, and yet rarely does anyone think about the ways in which "the system" abuses its altruistic definition to mask its true intent at times. While this is not the norm, there are many cases in which people and companies use the guise of volunteerism and service in order to gain personal wealth and other benefits beyond what is normal for volunteers to ask for. For instance, there are a handful of nonprofits out there which are actually for profit organizations using its 501(c)3 status to solicit monetary donations which go directly to their pockets. While the staff must be paid, some directors make six to seven figure salaries and give a one figure portion of their profits to their supposed cause. As the nonprofit sector is such a broad field, it would be interesting to do a study in order to see how much corruption there is in such organizations. This also makes me think of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), the new business model every corporation needs to utilize in order to remain uncriticized in society today. While it seems like a good thing that these great, big, rich companies are willing to take part in giving service to others, I cannot help but to think that it might be purely for show and image benefits. I'm not saying it's one or the other, but after hearing a Mattel philanthropy officer speak to my class a a year or so ago I am not sure I am convinced that they do it for altruistic reasons. After all, companies tend to give only 2-3% of their profit to philanthropic purposes (according to this person at Mattel).

Cleaning the beaches of Isla Contoy

On a brighter note, it's always nice to see large corporations who are willing to incite the spirit of volunteerism in others. I was so excited when Disney announced their "Give a Day, Get a Day" deal in 2010 where you could volunteer for a day at a participating organization and in return you received a voucher good for one free entry into Disneyland or California Adventure Park. The response from the public was overwhelming, and Disney quickly reached the limit for the number of free vouchers they were able to give out. I enlisted my roommates and my family to sign up for projects with me right away as well. I ended up volunteering at the Los Angeles Marathon for the Students Run LA program in which middle school aged kids who were at risk in the Los Angeles area had trained for the past school year in order to run at this event. It was such an inspiring thing to see these kids who looked much younger than they were often times, crossing the finish line. Wow. A marathon. They ran a marathon! While I felt like I wasn't able to do too much to help the program out in a single day, I keep up with their newsletters and events throughout the year, and I have decided to run my own half marathon this year after being so inspired by the efforts of this program. Volutneering often exposes people to ideas and cultures outside of their comfort zone and inspires them to do something about it. Volutneering really can change the world, if people can serve others willingly and joyfully.

Have I done any good in the world today?
Have I helped anyone in need?
Have I cheered up the sad and made someone feel glad?
If not, I have failed indeed.
Has anyone’s burden been lighter today
Because I was willing to share?
Have the sick and the weary been helped on their way?
When they needed my help was I there?
Then wake up and do something more
Than dream of your mansion above.
Doing good is a pleasure, a joy beyond measure,
A blessing of duty and love.
2. There are chances for work all around just now,
Opportunities right in our way.
Do not let them pass by, saying, “Sometime I’ll try,”
But go and do something today.
’Tis noble of man to work and to give;
Love’s labor has merit alone.
Only he who does something helps others to live.
To God each good work will be known.
Then wake up and do something more
Than dream of your mansion above.
Doing good is a pleasure, a joy beyond measure,
A blessing of duty and love.