Sins and virtues

I had wanted to call this item "the seven sins and virtues", but in fact, I only have six on offer.

It's a long story. Two weeks ago, my wife gave our children a large fake-ancient keyring, with seven fake-ancient keys. Like most children, our children follow the general maxim that "any present is a good present", but in this case they didn't really know what to think. My wife quickly invented something about doorways and secrets and magic but, also being my kids, they demanded a much more tangible and rational explanation. So the problem was passed on to me, the idea being that I would invent a story about the seven keys.

I soon hit on the idea of writing about the seven virtues (they are definitely not old enough for a story about the seven sins), and happily set off in search of web-based wisdom on the subject. Within a matter of hours I had enough information to start. I collected all the so-called virtues (modesty, prudence, beauty, chastity, etc.) I could find - in the end, I had about 100 - in a single document, printed that out, and then cut out each virtue and started sorting them. The end result of this exercise, which again took several hours, spread out over several days/sorting sessions, was the identification of clusters of related virtues. More importantly, the sorting allowed me to refine my own personal definition of a virtue (namely by excluding good qualities that are mostly genetic, such as health, strength, intelligence, etc.) and to also exclude values that I consider outmoded (mostly also religious values). Out of the original eight, I now have six left. Here they are, not in any particular order:

KNOWLEDGE
attention, focus, awareness (incl. of self), consciousness, discernment, sensitivity, perceptiveness
curiosity, love of learning, knowledge (incl. of self), understanding, intuition, foresight

GETTING THINGS DONE
enthusiasm, passion, hopefulness, optimism, motivation, commitment, dedication, determination, responsiveness
caution, prudence
efficiency
communication skills
diligence, industriousness
fortitude, courage
patience, perseverance, tenacity, resilience, stress-resistance, endurance
purposefulness
assertiveness, self-respect, confidence, autonomy, independence, self-reliance
flexibility, adaptability

HUMANITY
caring, mercy, nurturing, benevolence
consideration, thoughtfulness, tactfulness, discretion, courteousness, respectfulness (of others)
forgiveness
friendliness, kindness, gentleness, lovingness
generosity, hospitality, charity, sharing
sympathy, empathy, compassion
cooperativeness, helpfulness, altruism, unselfishness

JUSTICE
obedience, morality, sense of ethics
judgement, priotisation, decisiveness
equity, fairness, impartiality, justice
honor, integrity
faithfulness, fidelity, loyality
dependability, trustworthiness, responsibility
sincerity, honesty, openness, candor, truthfulness

TEMPERANCE
balance
humility, modesty, moderation, temperance
restraint, self-control, self-discipline

TRANSCENDANCE
appreciation, thankfulness
acceptance, contentment
detachment, equanimity, sense of humor, sense of perspective
wisdom

Now, if I can only find a way to turn this into a children's story ...