Joy! by Bruce Velick

Author:Bruce Velick [Velick, Bruce]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
Published: 2018-03-05T16:00:00+00:00

JOY AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT

As it connects us outward and upward, joy is spiritual. Devotional writers have long located the emotion of joy within the human spirit. The Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, among other spiritual giants, prefer the term joy over happiness. Joy is part of the very essence of human nature, intrinsic to what it means to be human.

The philanthropist Sir John Templeton believed that joy was one of the key virtues and thematic organizing principles of life. He wrote, “Have you ever noticed how some people seem to be joyful no matter what is going on in their lives?” Real joy is a deep and lasting quality that helps transcend difficulties and restores a zest for life and living no matter what happens. For scientist and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, joy was the most infallible sign of the presence of God. The famous account of Blaise Pascal’s dramatic spiritual transformation is saturated with “joy, joy, joy tears of joy . . . Eternally in joy . . .”

One thing we have learned from a scientific analysis of joy is that there is no clear or easy definition of what it may be. Nor can it be analyzed from a single disciplinary vantage point, whether brain science, evolutionary biology, the psychology of emotion, or theology and other humanities. No, it is too big to fit neatly into a disciplinary box. In the study of joy, the sciences and the humanities must marry.

Ultimately, we must do more than simply talk about joy. We must experience it. Joy may be hard to define, but we know it when we have it, and we know it when we lose it. Robert Louis Stevenson got it right when he said, “and the true realism, always and everywhere, is that of the poets: to find out where joy resides, and give it a voice far beyond singing. For to miss the joy is to miss all.” Let’s not miss it. Let’s turn the page and experience joy for ourselves.

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