Article September 24, 2001 ISSUE

A riff on joy

By Zöe Landale

Joy is one of the most elusive emotions, flickering in and out of our lives like winter sunshine between storm fronts. We want it. We court it. And often, joy dances just out of reach—promising, beckoning, but always withdrawing faster than we can reach it. The unspoken, but felt, reasoning sometimes goes like this: If this and this happens, when this and that comes to fruition, when all this worldly stuff takes place, then we'll have a right to a brief moment of exultation.

So we give up. Joy is too much of a stretch. We grow weary of empty hands.

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