The pursuit of happiness is written as one of America’s three inalienable rights, right up there with life and liberty. I’ve read that one’s happiness is partially hardwired by genetics, partially shaped by circumstance, and the rest is a bit of the unknown. Inspired by a story about friend’s grandmother who had a fridge magnet that read, “Happiness is a choice” (it became their family’s motto), Bushwickers are asked whether or not this grandmother’s maxim was to be believed.

music: “Nomenclature” by Andrew Bird