JOYFUL PIECE #67
Transition...
Image by Vinayaraj, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. [1]
[1] This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
Who are we?
What are we?
What is important?
She walked into my office and greeted me as an old friend. Some time had passed since we had last seen each other, and I did not recognize her. She then told me about her transition into the female gender. Never had I been in a supervisory position over a transitioned human being. Yes, that is the key epithet “human being”. Each day her medications were taking effect. She took extreme care to look as feminine as she could muster out of a body that was male at inception.
Transitioning is no easy affair and is accompanied by suffering in all the human dimensions: personal, social, psychological, mental, spiritual, physical, emotional, and other dimensions that I can only imagine.
Last Friday my wife and I watched the documentary Will & Harper. I could not help but remember my close working relationship with my transitioned friend. The suffering, courage, and fortitude required to transition are unimaginable to me.
The “Will and Harper” documentary taught me that in the challenges that life presents, there is as much joy in being accepted as in accepting the other. It is one of the most moving and compassionate documentaries that I have experienced.
There is some inexplicable connection between suffering and joy. One of the greatest graces of this existence is that we are able to experience joy in the midst of suffering.
—Christian Wiman [2]
There is joy in being yourself.
Compassion matters, joy matters…
Compassion does matter.
Thank you for reminding us that at very difficult moments we can practice looking for the joy in life. We get these few years to be ourself once.