Theft and Joy

I was walking by the wet produce section at our local grocery store this afternoon when the moistening spray activated. Along with it came Gene Kelley singing "Singing in the Rain." I found myself smiling and realizing that every time I walk by the produce section I'm hoping that song will come on. It gives me joy. Written sometime in the 1920s by Arthur Freed and music by Nacio Herb Brown, and featured in the 1929 movie Hollywood Revue of 1929, is also the most memorable song from the eponymous 1952 movie. It is also one of the most popular songs of all time. The writers made a contribution to joy and our cultural memory when they wrote it, and Gene Kelley certainly did the same when he sang it and danced in the rain. It got me to thinking about other contributions to joy that make a difference in my life, lighten my step, get me through a hard time. Like Beethoven's Ode to Joy, hearing it can profoundly affect one's outlook.

We all have our favorite comedians. The best of them also make a contribution to joy, even those, like Lewis Black, whose shtick employs anger and sarcasm. People who speak the truth (as the best funny people consistently do) also contribute to joy, if not immediate joy, then eventual joy, since truth is a road to freedom, and freedom is a path to joy. The innocence and playfulness of the children of most mammals both expresses and contributes to joy, as does the tenderness of tender people, the wisdom of wise people, the help of helpful people, and the creativity of creative people: the products of people who have worked to know themselves and what they have to give. Joy is contagious, and can be spread in simple ways; however, the most significant and lasting contributions are made by those who know themselves, understand their gifts, and work hard at expressing them. Not only will the product of your work create joy in others, but the process of the work will create joy in you.

There's a passage in Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner, where Amir's father tells him that theft is the greatest sin:

Now, no matter what the mullah teaches, there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft... When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness... There is no act more wretched than stealing, Amir.

The joyful do not steal because they are already satisfied. The joyful are net givers because they are fortunate enough to know that joy increases exponentially when it is spread. But it is not joy per se that is spread, it is our particular expression of joy, expressed through our gifts. There is an often quoted saying of Jesus from the non canonical Gospel of Thomas:

If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.

It is often cited for a very good reason: it happens to be true, and truth is a source of joy. Those of us who are not raised to understand our value and importance to the world, those of us who are abused early and taught to feel worthless rather than cherished and nurtured are more likely to be thieves of joy, though by no means all. It's remarkable how many people catch on despite being raised in desperate, joyless circumstances. People who are taught that they have nothing to give are at a great disadvantage in this regard, they will have a much more difficult road discovering what it is within them that they must bring forth.

There are plenty of joy thieves in our lives: death, loss, loneliness, rude or mean spirited people, violence, cruelty, disloyalty, gossip, addiction, illness, boredom, anxiety, and more; and when we are the perpetrators of these things we are thieves of joy, robbing it from others as well as ourselves. But we are also reducing the amount of joy in the world by not knowing ourselves, understanding our gifts, and working hard to manifest them. This is thievery by omission. As Dennis Prager says in his book Happiness is a Serious Problem, we have a moral obligation be happy. Self knowledge and diligence in developing and manifesting our gifts is a critical component to this.

I have a beloved friend who likes to repeat something her supervisor used to tell her when she was a young social worker: "The worst and truest poverty is when you believe that you have nothing left to give." Joy is one of the easiest things to give when it is manifest in our lives, and it becomes manifest in our lives when we are expressing our other gifts. And, to repeat a cliché, it is one of those things that we get more of when we give it away. For most of us those gifts manifest only slightly beyond our own lifetimes; for a fortunate few, like Gene Kelley, they manifest for generations after us.