Joy in the Anthropocene

As I mentioned in class I just finished The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green (a Christmas gift), which was really interesting, mostly due to the format, and fairly humorous. He reviews everything from the Internet to Diet Dr. Pepper.

But I've been thinking about The Book of Joy, with the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and interviewer, Douglas Abrams, which I read a few years ago. Definitely one of my favorites, and has been in my thoughts since Desmond Tutu passed away. A beautiful work of literary journalism, it explores these two joyful leaders, their friendship, their suffering, and their joy. This is a great (and relevant) excerpt:

"'Discovering more joy does not, I'm sorry to say,' the Archbishop added as we began our descent, 'save us from the inevitability of hardship and heartbreak. In fact, we may cry more easily, but we will laugh more easily, too. Perhaps we are just more alive. Yet as we discover more joy, we can face suffering in a way that ennobles rather than embitters. We have hardship without becoming hard. We have heartbreak without being broken.'" (12)