This selected topic “Endless Joy” puzzles me. Why was it chosen? What could it possibly mean? After all, for any human being to experience endless joy rationally seems to be an impossibility. No one experiences endless joy unless he either wishes to arbitrarily interpret his life that way or if he is delusional.
The human condition does not allow for endless joy. We are born mortal, already flawed, and vulnerable to a myriad of trials, tribulations, disappointments, and sorrows throughout life. I realize that some people apparently are blessed with a generally positive attitude, whereas others are plagued with doubt and pessimism. Each may view conditions and events differently; however, neither is slated to be gifted with endless joy.
Perhaps if a person compartmentalizes his life into a variety of conditions, experiences, and activities, one might suggest that one or more of those categories presents endless joy. Taking myself for an example, I have learned over the years that I have an especially deep understanding and appreciation of truly fine music. Such superlative music never fails to provide me with joy, passion, and solace. So, separating out those moments when I either hear or play such high-quality music, they cumulatively provide me with endless joy.
By nature, I also especially appreciate and respond to true love, friendship, and camaraderie. It is a rare person who claims not to require the companionship of fellow human beings, but I do sense that I especially am sensitive to such human gifts.
Admittedly, my appreciation of Mother Nature is very selective. I am a romantic and idealist. So, there are seasons and locales to which I respond deeply, whereas there are others that I feel to be far less inviting, less aesthetic, perhaps even harsh or dangerous. For those ideal aspects of nature, they, too, provide me with great joy. To, again, express such experiences cumulatively, Nature can provide me with joy.
Because none of us is in the springtime of our lives, we generally are suffering a variety of afflictions to our health along with daily concerns and trials. I pity those who may have bowed under the weight of elder life and have lost a sense of joy. Instead, we might regard being alive each day as joy, at least in some aspects of our lives, no matter the difficulties or pain.
I see no viable alternative. Wishing is unrealistic and impractical, although we may engage in it from time to time. I am aware that in some Greek plays and Baroque operas, when some problem has become overwhelming and unsolvable, the authors often employed (as expressed in the Latin phrase) deus ex machina, meaning that a divine power spontaneously intervenes with a device that solves the problems. For example, the lonely and unfortunate cyclops Polifemo, blinded and desperate, pleads with Jove for intervention, who does respond and grants Polifemo the gift of immortality. We might envy Polifemo's great good fortune.
On a more realistic plain, finding joy in life may be a real art, an acquired skill, a consistent philosophy. So, it is important for each of us to seek and experience a variety of joys, great or small, each day. For me, Story Time, and its members, has become one of those joys.
December, 2014
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