JOYFUL PIECE #55

The synergy between celebration and joy…

Fourth of July Fireworks at the Statue of Liberty, by spurekar, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. ‡

In my life I have often found an intimate connection between joy and celebration. There seems to be synergy, a “do loop” between joy and celebration. One often leads to the other.

This past Sunday brought us such an experience. Joe Biden gave us a reason to celebrate humility, selflessness, and commitment to a greater good, as he announced his decision to terminate his candidacy for POTUS. Many have written about him, but my purpose in this post is to celebrate true patriotism, selflessness and the balancing of personal desires with the greater good.

It has been written that a grain of wheat must die to bear much fruit. On Sunday I witnessed the death, the sacrifice, of personal desire, and a demonstration of true service to the people of this nation.

Those actions have borne great fruit in the outpouring of support for his party. The American people can now focus on defeating the forces of hate, intolerance, and autocracy. We can now focus fully on the real important issues, including climate change, poverty, health care, education, diversity, equity, inclusion, and protecting democracy.

How optimistic, kind, and compassionate will we be in countering hate, intolerance, and autocracy?

How resilient will we be in preserving the founding principles of this country as we go into the Tuesday November 5 election?

However we respond to those questions, this is a moment for JOY!

Note: I have read and reflected on posts in recent days by Anne Applebaum of The Atlantic; political historian Heather Cox Richardson, writer of Letters from An American; and historian Jon Meacham. My words probably carry some of the flavor of their contributions.

20240723

‡  This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.