A couple friends and I have an ongoing text chain, sometimes emails too, that goes back years. It’s mostly stream-of-consciousness: bits of poetry, prayers for work and marriage and children, cunning and astute observations, theological squabbles, recipes and beautiful pictures, rounds of witty repartee that we’ll keep to ourselves, and rants on whatever nonsense various numbskulls have inflicted upon social media that day. In the past week, each one of us has offered our own version of the same conviction: we’re in desperate need of joy.
Joy’s hard won these days. At least if you’re breathing and paying half attention. It can appear naive or brittle or uncaring to pursue (and even more to publicly profess) joy whenever it seems like Rome’s burning. And yet joy —true joy– is not denial of the pain or treachery. Joy does not sing syrupy lullabies in place of the funeral dirge. Rather, joy walks through the valley of shadows, all the while refusing to crumble or relent. Joy endures. Joy gathers the tears and the wounds and the crushing disappointment, all the while brazenly resisting the devastating lie that these tears and wounds, these evils and disappointments, are the truest story. Joy clings to faith with a dogged grip. Indeed, Joy is hard won.
Anyone can pump out pollyannaish clichés. Conversely, anyone can wallow in gloom and cynicism. But to live in the reality of things and yet be adamant in the pursuit of joy–that requires a stout, courageous soul. “We must have,” as Jack Gilbert insisted, “the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of the world.” This is one of the many places where we must have the hard-won wisdom of those who’ve suffered at the margins, those who’ve sat on the razor edge. Listen to the songs of the oppressed. Hear their poetry and their stories. Sit around their tables. They teach us how to name injustice, yes. But what strikes me most is how they teach us to be fierce, unrelenting and obstinate, with our joy.
Jonathan Hiskes described the late Brian Doyle’s work as “a mystical project born both of joy and desperation.” That touches the core. A joy born of desperation. A joy we cling to because we know in our bones that to live without joy, without the hope and faith and love that makes joy possible, is to abandon life itself.
My definition of “Joy” is, “Joy is Grace and Mercy dancing in the Light of His Love.”
That’s a good definition, Jim
“To keep our faces toward change, and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate, is strength undefeatable.” These words of Helen Keller’s – with my own twist – have been my friends for many years. “Fate” is another name for God, for me – and all the things in God’s world I can’t understand or control (also usually synonymous). And to “behave like a free spirit” may just mean getting up and walking into my day, with that incomplete understanding, knowing that joy may surprise me any old way, most often when I least expect or deserve it. Grace!
Thank you, Wendy
Thanks Winn for the beautifully written, thoughtful and non-verbose prose! Also, thank you for reminding me of the many uncomplaining (true) saints I have met over the years who despite great suffering kept their heartache to themselves and displayed a deep, quiet, inner joy! L-rd, make me like them!
Me too, Gary.