17 April

I wanted to put down some thoughts about joy, and how to get it (imo), at a time plenty probably aren't feeling it. Takes a minute or two to read, I know that's not popular on FB! What inspired me is the number of social media posts I see asking people for 'positivity' instead of 'negativity'. It's not always clear what people mean by that. It seems most often to mean that talking about things that are difficult is negative, and if we talk about things that are easy and fun, we're being positive. We seem to see the world we live in increasingly through the lens of emotion - how it makes us feel is the most important thing. I'd like to suggest that's a recipe for getting the opposite of what people are after. Our feelings and emotions are effects, created by the reality we're living. We have it backwards, you can't make reality positive or negative - reality just is. So often positivity and negativity mean ignoring the reality altogether and focusing only on your own feelings. Shit is happening, so I'll ignore it and do something else that makes me happy. It's an avoidance strategy. The problem with living your life using avoidance strategies is - reality eventually catches up with you. You can't avoid it forever. It's like living beyond your means using debt; feels fantastic for a while, and then the bank comes calling. There is only one true source of joy in life, which transcends any negative or positive, any individual 'perspective' on things. That source is understanding. Knowledge. You might think it's love, or friendship, or lovely experiences of some kind. But all of those ultimately are about understanding, without understanding none of them last. If you don't understand love, for example, it will destroy you, make you absolutely miserable. If you don't understand why some activity makes you happy, eventually it will stop making you happy. There's no way around it, the only true joy in life is understanding. The joy of this too is that it means it doesn't matter what shit life throws at you, including pandemics. You will find joy in all of it, by understanding it. You won't have to try to avoid it and control your life so that you only have 'happy' experiences. Life will catch up with you if you do that, and it will bitch-slap you hard. Joy is a state of reality, not a perspective on it, like positive and negative are. It accepts reality for what it is, the only true grown up way to live, and by understanding that reality as it presents to you, you will have only joy in life.