Photo by Jose M on Unsplash

Please excuse my enthusiasm.

People are living with dread and fear — and in too many instances, paralyzing pessimism.

I see why. I understand why. And yet, I’m looking forward to this afternoon, to literally dancing in the streets. (As I write this, it is the day of the No Kings rally.) Is this self-deception? Is this insensitivity? Is this foolishness?

My attitude may seem that way to some. But I have my reasons.

Explaining Enthusiasm

In my opinion, I’ve had an easy life. But really, I’ve had great joy and moments of terrible suffering. We all have. That is the nature of the human condition.

I’ve had highs — from landing the lead in a community theatre show as a child, and lows — being in the hospital thisclose to death…twice.

I’m sure you, too, have had highs and lows. Although, if you are very young, you may not have experienced the extremes yet. But you will.

Joy Is Taking Charge. Joy Is Other People.

There is a lot about life that’s a tragedy. Some of it is natural and unavoidable — for example, the inevitability of death. Others are unnecessary but a part of everyday life due to the stupidity of our civilization. I would put working for money in this category. Most jobs are useless and a surprisingly high number are outright destructive.

Indeed, any work that doesn’t provide value that matches or exceeds the cost in our time and energy is, I believe, morally wrong. We waste enormous parts of our short precious lives doing STUPID work .

We should value lives — our own and others. Of course, we don’t have a choice in our current situation. We receive (some) pay, but we are essentially slaves with no real alternatives — yet.

But this is a digression and something that I cover elsewhere. The point here is that we should value our lives, even as there are some tragedies we cannot (or at least cannot yet) escape.

We should feel joy and spread joy. This is equally important to our moral obligation to relieve suffering.

To my mind, protests like the No Kings rally do both. We literally party together as communities and also give notice to tyrants that WE ARE NOT BOWED.

We give encouragement to each other, because we know that nonviolent movements have dispatched tyrants and that our movement can dispatch the tyrant who now afflicts our country. We are spreading hope — a genuine well-founded hope — to others, and providing an opportunity for them to participate in our mutual liberation.

When I look at the big picture — the terrible and the beautiful — I find myself feeling joy. I see suffering as a target, a call to action. It does not bow me or make me withdraw. It certainly never makes me feel like giving up.

I don’t think everyone can or should feel as I do. The challenges and suffering are not distributed evenly. Many, many people have suffered far worse than I have. And we don’t have the same capacity for enduring suffering. The younger me was much more vulnerable than the person I am today.

We need to be together. We need to lift up those who are having the hardest times. That’s what our protests are about — protecting people who are targets of the criminal regime. We are there to deter racism, and violence, and hatred.

The idea that we should love one another is the guide. I am not religious but I see that feeling and sharing love is the key. Oh, and if you think of yourself as a Christian, you too are guided by love. If not, you are a fraud — and there are a lot of loud visible frauds out there today.

Living Fully and Helping Others

I have a guide for myself that others may find helpful.

This is how I live:

1. I try to meet my (sensible or unavoidable) obligations.
2. I do things that seem to be my core — things that bring me joy. In my case, most of that is creative expression.
3. I try to make sure that whoever encounters me has a slightly better day than they would have if they hadn’t encountered me. (This seems tiny but it’s important.)
4. I do something to make the world a better place for everyone. This is my activism.

I think despair comes from feeling defeated, helpless, and pessimistic. It comes from not appreciating the fact that WE ARE ALIVE RIGHT NOW and we have the capacity to experience joy every day.

As I was wheeled into the operating room in 2019, fully aware that this could be my last day, I felt joy.

I truly did. I thought “hey, I’ve had a good life” and amused myself joking with doctors as I rode on the stretcher.

As it turned out, I came out fine. But even if I hadn’t, that was the right attitude. Embrace life. It’s a gift. We can experience joy and share it with others. We can fix much of the evil that foolish humans, through destructive systems and bad behaviors and evil values, have brought upon us.

And we can defeat and remove tyrants without violence, and with defiant joy. Together.