There are few words more boring than “virtue.” But here are some of them: rice cake, family reunion, Nebraska, statistics, group therapy, and Shreveport.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. As we cobble together the Brave New World of globalization, the idea called “virtue” might need a second hearing. Why?

There is no set list of virtues (outside of your catechism class). Lists overlap, diverge, shrink, and expand over time. New virtues can always pop up. Virtue thinking is potentially pluralistic. You can pick your virtue (or more likely, a set of them) and get with it. Your virtues can be self-directed, community-directed, or intitution-directed. Your choice.

Sorry to sound like a guidance counselor on career day there. But all virtues share three characteristics, so you can draw a line between virtue and a good habit or pleasant disposition (thanks MSB):

1. A ‘practice.’ Something you actually do, like meditation, picketing, therapy, or speaking in tongues.
2. A ‘narrative’ constructed for a single human life. A virtue’s tools help you find ways to give your life a beginning, middle, and end—even if you revise your story.
3. A ‘moral tradition.’ This doesn’t have to be as heavy as it sounds. Will probably be some combo of a supportive community and/or institution and some defining figures or texts. (Say, MLK and the ‘I have a dream’ sermon.)

So pick a virtue, dammit. Nietzsche advises to pick one and only one. And to not name it, lest it lose its power, or gain power over you. And usually, one’s more than I can handle. I think it was Mark Twain who said, “Show me a man with no vices, and I’ll show you a man with no virtues.” So I’ve at least got half of it down.