The Art of Joy

"I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for joy"

(CS Lewis)

There is a distinction between feeling pleasure and feeling joy. The latter holds the effort, struggle, suffering and act of completion. The former doesn't allow for struggle and suffering to sit and hold hands with the rest of the effort. They are left out in the cold and ignored.

But struggle and suffering is a part of the normal process of life. It is how we recognize the finitude of everything around us, and the infiinity of the universe which, while we may be a part of it, the part - the life we are experiences now in all its uniqueness, is not really. We may carry the memory of it forward, but it is a memory of the soul.

Pleasure seeks to repeat itselt. To stop time. Joy is about realizing that nothing can ever be redone, but it can be remembered and carried with us as we go.