Get Some
Lovers in the Moonlight, Marc ChagallI've got the joy, joy, joy, joy
Down in my heart (Where?)
Down in my heart (Where?)
Down in my heart
--Down in My Heart, George Willis Cooke
Knock down the old brick wall,
and be a part of it all
--No Matter What, Badfinger
What we long for: joy
before death, nights
in the swale
— everything else can wait
--Blossom, Mary Oliver
______________
Sunday homily: What is joy? [Cross-posted at Big Brass Blog.]
Not that forced thing that we often mistake for the Real Thing. To be joyful is to be in a state of grace, which is not to say it should be a holy or rarefied state. Joy just is, and can be quiet or boisterous, but it is always accompanied by a genuine smile (even if its only on the inside.) Joy is genuine delight and has an aspect of celebration, though it need not be showy.
Lisa doesn't usually You Tube, but here's an exception. If the WaPo hadn't fronted it, I'd never have seen it -- Going to the Chapel & We're Gonna Get Jiggy. It's fun, and if this doesn't make you smile, or reminds you of your past two failed marriages, you are too serious or sullen.
What is this joy that we feel when we witness these happy Minnesotans?
Read more here. . .
Labels: JK wedding entrance dance, jk's wedding, joy, minnesota wedding
posted by Lisa at 8:10 PM
13 Comments:
What the he...oh, wait, it's a wedding...I guess thats okay...though don't these newly weds know that marriage is a sacred institution, not to be joyful about, but rather somber and dark?
Being hitched to one person, and only one person for all time...oh.my.god.
They shouldn't be dancing...they should have suicide counselors, and pharma sales reps loaded with Percocet, Demerol, Morphine, and all the other neural neutralizers.
And where are the Bud lizards croaking out that age old male call?
A wedding ceremony isn't a time to dance and be happy...it's a time to mourn, wail, and gnash teeth!
"Yes, poor soul, go quietly into that terrible dark, lonely you will not be, but lonely you wish you were!"
Of course, I jest.
:)
A little too convincingly, methinks :)
Every once in a great while, either my significant other will ask of me, or I of her, "Ya' ever think about gittin' married?"
The answer is always the same, "Why get married and ruin a beautiful friendship?"
POLT,
That is one perspective. But I'm old-fashioned, and pure in intention, so I see it as a good (provided both parties are of the same mind.)
I'll give you another one, similar to yours, posted by a friend at a message board. Joy interrupting the humdrum of daily existence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UE3CNu_rtY
BTW, have you read "Surprised by Joy", C. S. Lewis?
"The very nature of Joy makes nonsense of our common distinction between having and wanting."
--Surprised by Joy
"All joy...emphasizes our pilgrim status; always reminds, beckons, awakens desire. Our best havings are wantings."
--from an unknown letter
bb
bb,
Lovely. To me, joy is (can be) that ground beneath having and wanting. Then nothing matters too much, but everything has a measure of the sacred (not to be too corny about it.)
Thanks also for the Lewis ref. -- I had not read it. The pilgrim ref. reminds me of one my favorite Yeats' stanzas:
"How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face"
We are all pilgrims.
/ahem
File this under..um..."more jesting."
Joy and happiness are two wonderful drugs that dull the senses to the everyday travails of the human condition that numbs the burdened soul to the daily trampling by fate and design.
The grind of life clockworks our meaninglessness, ticking off the moments of endless drudgery as we all swallow the gall that rises in protest of our submission to the time.
The moments of harm unleashed in our miserable conditions begs relief from any source, and so we reach for the drug cabinet daily, each pill called "joy" and "happiness" we swallow gleefully, willing the life opiate to transform our reality to something more bearable than the thing we daily drown in.
But it is true what we are told about drugs, they deaden the senses, they deter our life focus, and turn us into something we are not..."happy" or "joyful."
So embrace the darkness that is our lives, let go the foolish cravings that the drugs of happy and joy have foisted upon you, and live the miserable life you, me, and the rest of humanity were employed to live.
As I said...I jest.
;)
bb,
The joy of which I speak is irrespective of cravings. It has an aspect of acceptance, but not resignation. We are most miserable when trying to carve something out of a recalcitrant block of marble.
That approach does not necessitate idle navel-gazing. It is fully engaged with the world, but can celebrate it all. Tears of joy and sorrow flow just the same. I believe that is what the Buddha spoke of when he spoke of being happy in the midst of even the miserable. Basically, embracing every human experience.
Joy isn't to be had in a pill. It's just one way to front the world. It is or it isn't. One may speak of discrete moments of happiness, or satisfaction or pleasure, but those are not joy.
IMO, joy is a constitutional state of being. Not always on a high, just deeply appreciative and glad.
Thanks, Lisa. That was a wonderful video and a good write-up too.
It did kinda prove the old adage that 'white men can't dance', but since it was in a church I guess it falls broadly under 'making a joyful noise'.
Also, all brides are beautiful.
Me 'n Mrs. G have been married for 36 years and are still friends.
Glad you liked it, Gordon. This bride exuded happiness, which is better than beautiful, IMHO.
I'm glad y'all are still friends. It shows, BTW.
Her beauty and happiness shone through together as one. We were saying the same thing, I think.
Ah, Gordon -- don't get me started on the whole "truth is beauty/beauty is truth" thing. . .!
But yeah, I think we're both speaking of true beauty.
OK, I won't get ya started...
This time. ;)
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