{"id":1946,"date":"2023-04-07T01:17:43","date_gmt":"2023-04-07T05:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/the-broadest-portal-to-joy-the-marginalian\/"},"modified":"2023-04-07T01:17:43","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T05:17:43","slug":"the-broadest-portal-to-joy-the-marginalian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/the-broadest-portal-to-joy-the-marginalian\/","title":{"rendered":"The Broadest Portal to Joy \u2013 The Marginalian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/hop.clickbank.net\/?affiliate=infohatch&amp;vendor=J1R2C\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10614 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png\" alt=\"Profit Gen\" width=\"400\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png 400w, http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px-300x163.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Inciting-Joy-Essays-Ross-Gay\/dp\/1643753959\/?tag=braipick-20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"320\" height=\"483\" class=\"cover alignright size-medium jetpack-lazy-image\" alt=\"The Broadest Portal to Joy\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/incitingjoy_rossgay.jpg?w=1688&amp;ssl=1 1688w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/incitingjoy_rossgay.jpg?resize=320%2C483&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/incitingjoy_rossgay.jpg?resize=600%2C906&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/incitingjoy_rossgay.jpg?resize=240%2C363&amp;ssl=1 240w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/incitingjoy_rossgay.jpg?resize=768%2C1160&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/incitingjoy_rossgay.jpg?resize=1017%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 1017w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/incitingjoy_rossgay.jpg?resize=1356%2C2048&amp;ssl=1 1356w\" data-lazy-sizes=\"(max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/incitingjoy_rossgay.jpg?fit=320%2C483&amp;ssl=1&amp;is-pending-load=1\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>All sorrow is, on some elemental level beneath cause and circumstance, an act of forgetting our connection to life, to one another, to the grand interbelonging of existence. <\/p>\n<p>All joy is the act of remembering \u2014 the hand outstretched for reconnection, for felicitous contact between othernesses. <\/p>\n<p>This awareness emanates from poet and gardener Ross Gay\u2019s essay collection <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Inciting-Joy-Essays-Ross-Gay\/dp\/1643753959\/?tag=braipick-20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>Inciting Joy<\/em><\/strong><\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/worldcat.org\/title\/1317343250\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>public library<\/em><\/a>) \u2014 a tendril unfurled from his infinitely life-affirming <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2019\/12\/01\/ross-gay-book-of-delights\/\"><em>Book of Delights<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_72916\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/society6.com\/product\/art-by-dorothy-lathrop-for-down-adown-derry-by-walter-de-la-mare-19224642772_print?curator=brainpicker\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" width=\"680\" height=\"801\" class=\"size-full wp-image-72916 jetpack-lazy-image\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/downadownderry_dorothylathrop17.jpg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/downadownderry_dorothylathrop17.jpg?resize=320%2C377&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/downadownderry_dorothylathrop17.jpg?resize=600%2C707&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/downadownderry_dorothylathrop17.jpg?resize=240%2C283&amp;ssl=1 240w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/downadownderry_dorothylathrop17.jpg?resize=768%2C905&amp;ssl=1 768w\" data-lazy-sizes=\"(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/downadownderry_dorothylathrop17.jpg?resize=680%2C801&amp;is-pending-load=1#038;ssl=1\"\/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" data-lazy-fallback=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/downadownderry_dorothylathrop17.jpg?resize=680%2C801&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"680\" height=\"801\" class=\"size-full wp-image-72916\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/downadownderry_dorothylathrop17.jpg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/downadownderry_dorothylathrop17.jpg?resize=320%2C377&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/downadownderry_dorothylathrop17.jpg?resize=600%2C707&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/downadownderry_dorothylathrop17.jpg?resize=240%2C283&amp;ssl=1 240w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/downadownderry_dorothylathrop17.jpg?resize=768%2C905&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Art by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2021\/03\/09\/dorothy-lathrop-down-adown-derry\/\">Dorothy Lathrop<\/a>, 1922. (Available <a href=\"https:\/\/society6.com\/product\/art-by-dorothy-lathrop-for-down-adown-derry-by-walter-de-la-mare-19224642772_print?curator=brainpicker\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">as a print<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/society6.com\/product\/art-by-dorothy-lathrop-for-down-adown-derry-by-walter-de-la-mare-19224642772_cards?curator=brainpicker\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">as stationery cards<\/a>.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>With an eye to the community orchard he helped create \u2014 a \u201clong sweaty collaborative dream\u201d \u2014 Gay writes:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Though I didn\u2019t yet have the words for it, planting that orchard \u2014 by which I mean\u2026 joining my labor to the labor by which it came to be \u2014 reminded me, or illuminated for me, a matrix of connection, of care, that exists not only in the here and now, but comes to us from the past and extends forward into the future. A rhizomatic care I so often forget to notice I am every second in the midst of. By which I came to be, and am, at all. Despite every single lie to the contrary, despite every single action born of that lie \u2014 we are in the midst of rhizomatic care that extends in every direction, spatially, temporally, spiritually, you name it. It\u2019s certainly not the only thing we\u2019re in the midst of, but it\u2019s the truest thing. By far.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Tapping into that microrhizal mesh that stretches between us \u2014 between all of our individual joys and sorrows, lacing them together into an ecology of interdependence \u2014 is our surest way of tapping into joy itself. Gay reflects:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>My hunch is that joy is an ember for or precursor to wild and unpredictable and transgressive and unboundaried solidarity. And that that solidarity might incite further joy. Which might incite further solidarity. And on and on. My hunch is that joy, emerging from our common sorrow \u2014 which does not necessarily mean we have the same sorrows, but that we, in common, sorrow \u2014 might draw us together. It might depolarize us and de-atomize us enough that we can consider what, in common, we love. And though attending to what we hate in common is too often all the rage (and it happens also to be very big business), noticing what we love in common, and studying that, might help us survive. It\u2019s why I think of joy, which gets us to love, as being a practice of survival.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"attachment_76831\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2022\/05\/12\/sophie-blackall-things-to-look-forward-to\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" width=\"680\" height=\"808\" class=\"size-full wp-image-76831 jetpack-lazy-image\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/sophieblackall_thingstolookforwardto_Huggingafriend.jpg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/sophieblackall_thingstolookforwardto_Huggingafriend.jpg?resize=320%2C380&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/sophieblackall_thingstolookforwardto_Huggingafriend.jpg?resize=600%2C713&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/sophieblackall_thingstolookforwardto_Huggingafriend.jpg?resize=240%2C285&amp;ssl=1 240w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/sophieblackall_thingstolookforwardto_Huggingafriend.jpg?resize=768%2C912&amp;ssl=1 768w\" data-lazy-sizes=\"(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/sophieblackall_thingstolookforwardto_Huggingafriend.jpg?resize=680%2C808&amp;is-pending-load=1#038;ssl=1\"\/><noscript><img data-lazy-fallback=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/sophieblackall_thingstolookforwardto_Huggingafriend.jpg?resize=680%2C808&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"680\" height=\"808\" class=\"size-full wp-image-76831\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/sophieblackall_thingstolookforwardto_Huggingafriend.jpg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/sophieblackall_thingstolookforwardto_Huggingafriend.jpg?resize=320%2C380&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/sophieblackall_thingstolookforwardto_Huggingafriend.jpg?resize=600%2C713&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/sophieblackall_thingstolookforwardto_Huggingafriend.jpg?resize=240%2C285&amp;ssl=1 240w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/sophieblackall_thingstolookforwardto_Huggingafriend.jpg?resize=768%2C912&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Art by Sophie Blackall from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2022\/05\/12\/sophie-blackall-things-to-look-forward-to\/\"><em>Things to Look Forward to<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This animating spirit of joy as a force-field of connection comes alive in Gay\u2019s poem \u201cPatience\u201d from his altogether vivifying collection <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Catalog-Unabashed-Gratitude-Pitt-Poetry\/dp\/0822963310\/?tag=braipick-20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude<\/em><\/strong><\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/worldcat.org\/title\/899987248\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>public library<\/em><\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>PATIENCE<\/strong><br \/><em>by Ross Gay<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Call it sloth; call it sleaze;<br \/>call it bummery if you please;<br \/>I\u2019ll call it patience;<br \/>I\u2019ll call it joy, this,<br \/>my supine congress<br \/>with the newly yawning grass<br \/>and beetles chittering<br \/>in their offices<br \/>beneath me, as I<br \/>nearly drifting to dream<br \/>admire this so-called weed which,<br \/>if I guarded with teeth bared<br \/>my garden of all alien breeds,<br \/>if I was all knife and axe<br \/>and made a life of hacking<br \/>would not have burst gorgeous forth and beckoning<br \/>these sort of phallic spires<br \/>ringleted by these sort of vaginal blooms<br \/>which the new bees, being bees, heed;<br \/>and yes, it is spring, if you can\u2019t tell<br \/>from the words my mind makes<br \/>of the world, and everything<br \/>makes me mildly or more<br \/>hungry\u2014the worm turning<br \/>in the leaf mold; the pear blooms<br \/>howling forth their pungence<br \/>like a choir of wet-dreamed boys<br \/>hiking up their skirts; even<br \/>the neighbor cat\u2019s shimmy<br \/>through the grin in the fence,<br \/>and the way this bee<br \/>before me after whispering<br \/>in my ear dips her head<br \/>into those dainty lips<br \/>not exactly like one entering a chapel<br \/>and friends<br \/>as if that wasn\u2019t enough<br \/>blooms forth with her forehead dusted gold<br \/>like she has been licked<br \/>and so blessed<br \/>by the kind of God<br \/>to whom this poem is prayer.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Complement with Borges on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2016\/08\/24\/borges-jfk-collective-tragedy-collective-joy\/\">collective joy and collective grief<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2022\/05\/17\/beethoven-ode-to-joy\/\">the remarkable story behind Beethoven\u2019s \u201cOde to Joy,\u201d<\/a> then revisit Ross Gay on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2020\/02\/17\/ross-gay-book-of-delights-grown\/\">what it takes to grow up and what it means to have grown<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hop.clickbank.net\/?affiliate=infohatch&amp;vendor=J1R2C\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10614 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png\" alt=\"Profit Gen\" width=\"400\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png 400w, http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px-300x163.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All sorrow is, on some elemental level beneath cause and circumstance, an act of forgetting our connection to life, to one another, to the grand [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-purpose"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}