On Finding Joy

In this darkening world it is no crime to hold onto what slivers of joy come our way.

It is easy to get lost in the headlines. The US has embarked on a war of aggression in violation of federal law, the US Constitution, the UN Charter, and the Olympic Truce. ICE thugs are still out there brutalizing people in the public streets, kidnapping and trafficking them to random nations. We are still governed by pedophiles, cosplayers, ghouls, and the suck-ups who defend them. AI slop is taking over and people are getting stupider in real time. Everything in the grocery store is smaller and costs more.

There is a very real sense that the people causing all of these headlines want you to get lost in them, though. They want you to despair. They want you to give in to fashionable nihilism and jaded dorm-lobby cynicism. It makes it easier for them when you do.

In such a world the act of finding joy is a subversive one.

There are good books to be read, strong black tea to drink, and conversations to be had with loved ones. The weather is slowly warming and soon we here in Baja Canada will be able to go outside without coats. There are cats. I will hold on to these things in defiance of an era that wants me to think of violence and cruelty and corruption.

It is entirely possible to grieve for the world and still take pleasure in what is in front of us.

There are many kinds of stories to be told, and each does not invalidate the others, no matter how it may seem when we are in the middle of them. I have no illusions about the current state of the world, but I will hold onto what joy comes my way as best I can.