'Be joyful always.'
This brief phrase can get tossed around quite a bit, but often times it is one that is much harder to actually carry out. We can first ask - what even is so important about joy? And then we can become consumed with the following question - can I be joyful when I’m angry, sad, happy, or indifferent? To exam this two pronged approach to joy we must start with the first.
Well joy began its three letter journey from the Latin phrase ‘gaudere’ meaning rejoice, made its way to the word ‘gaudium’, later found use in Old French as the word ‘joie’ and finally ended up taking form as the Middle English word ‘joy’. The reason we need to trace the word joy is because its history also shows us when it was most and least used in language and literature. According to Google’s NGram, the most frequent time it is found used in literature is in 1827 (0.00756%) and the lowest percentage of use in literature is in 1986, at a level of 0.002196%.
Taking the high point first, it’s interesting to look at this year, 1827, in history. The first swimming pool was built in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Freedom Journal’s first publication was released as the first Black Newspaper. Also marking this time period was high tension in the world with events like race riots in Cincinnati, the storming of Yerevan by Russian soldiers, and the Turks taking of the Acropolis in the Greek War for Independence.
As for the low point, we see similar variety in historical events and human relations. Elie Wiesel accepted the Nobel Prize, Spain recognized Israel’s independence, racial tensions in South Africa were at a peak, and Russia announced the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
So how on earth are the high points and low points both strewn with both amazing accomplishments and terrible tragedies? The first thing we can extrapolate is that joy seems to transcend to both immensely good and bad things. It’s something that is found regardless of circumstance. While there is no direct breakdown of where the literature stems containing the word joy at the time, the importance is to see a dichotomy of both significant good and trying times taking place simultaneously.
We also can’t ignore the trend downwards that the aforementioned statistics suggest. This could be indicative of a loss of joy as a whole. It seems that the world has lost its joy. Why this happens is not exactly easy to see, but I would hypothesize that joy needs to be thought about and reflected upon in order to return it to our minds more often. Joy allows us to frame both the good and bad in a way that teaches us something. Put another way, we cherish the little things such that big events whether positive or negative don’t shake the foundations on which we stand. This last point leads into answering our second question.
Joy is a foundation for fully understanding other emotions, because it is found in all things. One simple way to understand joy through sadness, anger, complacence, or any other state of mind is to give joy and thanks for the experience it provides. It may not be the easiest concept to practice, but it is worthwhile. A little joy goes a long way.
May you find joy in all circumstance.
