Chance has led me to read, on the same day, two writings that spoke of “defending joy”, and they have stirred something that I had been pondering for a long time.
Defending joy is actually the title of a beautiful poem by Mario Benedetti that I invite you to reread. A text without waste, but let me mention two sentences. The first says: “defend the joy from endemics and academies.” Here, he could almost have said, from pandemics—and would be hitting the mark. Benedetti invites us to continue defending joy despite all that we are experiencing worldwide. Despite all the forecasts of scientists and scholars (the academies) that alert us that difficult times will continue. It is defending joy as a deep conviction that all humanity struggles and moves forward despite the pain and death that surrounds us. It is defending joy as something that one is born with and that one cultivates throughout life and helps him or her to cope with the worst gales. It is to defend the joy of passivity, of the entrenched complaint, of acrimony, of the pessimistic pose in life that only sees problems and misfortunes around and does not see everything that oneself causes or does not avoid.
The first text that I have now read is an article by María de la Válgoma in the magazine Vida Nueva titled “Defend joy”. He quotes Saint Isidore of Seville, who says that joy expands the heart. In the first dictionary of the Castilian language, joy is openness of mind to let the loved object enter. In other words, the joy is expansive. What a relief! I hope sadness is not!
And the same article quotes Rosa Montero, who in a television interview said that happiness is a habit. But there I say: be careful! I remember a friend who had a family slogan: you must be happy! As if not being cheerful was rude. Like, no matter what you always had to find the positive aspects of everything. So much so, that it was superficial. This is when the other verse of Mario Benedetti resonates with me: "defending happiness from the obligation to be happy". If, as Rosa Montero says, happiness is a habit, this is good news. There is no doubt that having a hopeful look at life, a grateful look, a look of optimism that is not necessarily naive, perhaps coupled with inner peace and serenity, can lead us to a true, deep joy. Now, if we do not have all these elements, perhaps we can "create" the habit: to impose ourselves to speak about the virtues of our friends instead of pointing out to their defects. To first assess the events that occurred thanks to the right decisions than the tragedies produced by wrong decisions . All this expands our heart, opens it, and what is better, expands that wonderful virtue.
The second writing that mentions "Defending joy" is a poem by José María R. Olaizola called "Danza vital": "Let your hands dance, and defend joy, converted into greeting and movement." The joy is shown in the greeting, in the movement of the hands, in the smile. The whole being overflows with it and expands, it is movement, it is action. Hopefully, even in times of masks that cover our beautiful smiles and distances that restrict our communication, we continue to cultivate this habit with authenticity, this deep and expansive virtue that is joy.
