The other day, I was walking past a co-workers office and saw a Christmas card on her desk. With very little ornamentation, it simply had the word JOY in large bold letters.
Couldn't dress it up a bit?
The irony was, in spite of the simple presentation, I thought about the word joy the rest of the day...and have ever since. What is there, after all, to dress-up about joy? Joy is its own ornamentation, especially the experience of it.
Joy seems to have an antecedent (better look that one up). And, typically, it is a response.
So, what is antecedent to joy and what kind of a response is it?
When you feel joy, you know it don't you? It is unique; different from the ease of happiness. It seems to include an element of relief. Like something important, that you feared was lost or gone, is still here and alive and, perhaps, even more so than you had ever anticipated.
It is hard this time of year not to notice the word. Embedded in the Christmas story (the famous hymn 'Joy to the World' comes to mind), joy connected to something good, something that is even more true than you had hoped for, is a response to great news. Lyrics from one of my favorite seasonal hymns captures the essence:
Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is Love and His gospel is Peace;
Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother,
And in his name all oppression shall cease,
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful Chorus raise we;
Let all within us praise his Holy name!
-- O Holy Night
And joy seems to reside in notions of something truly transcendent, collective, and cosmicly convivial, often manifesting itself in forms of praise.
The antecedent may very well be our fear about all that isn't peace and love. Against the back-drop of 'sin and error pining', comes the realization that peace will, in fact, prevail because of Love.
Regeneration of the good news of this prospect invariably produces a response of joy — a euphoric sense that all will be well again, after all.
Like the Christmas card, it is conspicuous that nothing can really adorn joy. It is its own self-contained essence. It surprises with excitement and lingers with unabatable anticipation that what was true...still is. Realization or recognition seems to be the context for joy.
As with most art, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And some of the best things still end up being unnecessarily overdone. This rendition, however, typically ends up with chills running up-and-down my spine. It is full of power and is graceful at the same time — descending and ascending in ways that feel deeply respectful of the sheer musicality of the content represented.
