Times of crisis and terror bring out the worst in some and the best in others. The latter are the stories that need telling. No one could reasonably expect these kinds of largess. Most of us might reasonably wonder whether we could summon the generosity and creativity to emulate such acts of generosity. But a word describing this sort of expansive impulse is this week’s addition to the Ethical Lexicon

What is happiness? Aristotle pondered it, our country’s founders encouraged its pursuit, but only now—thanks to the thriving field of Positive Psychology—have we learned more precisely how to attain and sustain it. In thousands of studies in the last two decades, researchers have watched babies share crackers, put Tibetan monks in brain scanners, asked college students to do kind deeds and explored databases, among other strategies. A major finding has emerged: Happiness is, to a great degree, in our own hands—or more exactly, our own minds.