Joy Has No Limit

When my math students ask me what a boundary is, I tell them that  a boundary is a movement. A movement that sometimes ends in an abyss and sometimes never ends. It can be a movement towards “having something”. But does this bring joy?

Most parents tell their children that they must be an ant and reject the grasshopper. (check out the fable  Mauren and the Grasshopper  if you do not understand). The grasshopper was, of course, the culprit at the end of the story. The future is unpredictable and you never know how many resources you will need if things get tough.

Children do not first understand the complexity of this philosophy, and see knowledge as a way to pass the exam. And this gives their parents joy.

This knowledge will mean something completely different when they fall in love. By that time, they will know everything. They will be fascinated with the opportunity to discover everything they can. This is how love becomes the engine of knowledge. A movement that reinforces itself with the idealization that inevitably emerges at an early age.

Joy and the “need to have”

One of the most common  motivations  is “the need to have”. We live in a society that is constantly moving towards a consumer society. It encourages us to maintain our quality of life, or even increase it, by getting more and more.

Money takes advantage of this need and tricks us. It seduces our dignity, our body or our selfless motives. This is how money achieves an attraction that few can resist, for which many have sold their souls to the devil.

Money becomes the carrot. It is certain that we go where people go, but people go where money leads them. The fact that someone performs a certain activity becomes a justification for others to follow them.

This is what has led many people in politics and sports to abuse their power and their bodies to move forward. This is also what made a large part of Nazi Germany follow the whims of a murderer. If everyone goes there, it is guaranteed to be the road to joy. And, if that is the case, why should we not follow them?

Joy and pleasure

Another “engine”, and at the same time a source of dissatisfaction when it comes to pleasure, is pleasure. The desire to seek satisfaction means that we drop our defenses. This means that we want temporary things rather than permanent ones. It makes us look for short-lived pleasures, rather than long-lived joy. In this way, pleasure seduces our weakness – enjoy today, because you may not want tomorrow.

But who can fight against this relentless message? The newspapers are full of mishaps and show few reasons to have hope. But anyway, we can assume that we know where things are happening.

Keep moving forward

This is how we get to the point where we do not care if we die, as long as we satisfy our desire for pleasure. But wow, does not this go directly against the message of the fable about the attitude of the ant? The idea of ​​saving, just in case. This is the way  neurosis  occurs, an anarchist behavior that ends up destroying the other person. In all their attempts to continue, the person has forgotten the reason they are for… and common sense as well. This is what happens when you do not know whether you should choose responsibility or pleasure.

We forget the reason that gives us the reasons to continue when everything starts to get complicated. Causes that have little or nothing to do with money and a lot to do with our true values ​​and those around us. Let us remember the importance of this reason, by considering the famous art of  Viktor Frankl, in which he describes how  reason, in spite of whether it was true or not, led many people to survive terrible conditions in the concentration camps. Without it, they would really have given up. 

Joy as a virtue

A more appealing interpretation of joy is one that has value. It puts us in the driver’s seat and makes us think about our lenses. It makes us think of values ​​like thanking, forgiving or loving. Activities that embrace the past, present and future within ourselves. Activities that will ensure a good outcome in our personal story and the opportunity to share in the present and to give us hope for the future.

On this path there is also a desire to know. About getting to know others, but also about getting to know ourselves. Another knowledge that will never end, just like the first, but one that gives us peace and security. If we go this way through life, there will be questions, and some answers. Our shadow will be our joy. The shadow that shows us the difference between the need to have and the need to be.

The search for joy will be a limit without an end. Joy  is  movement and yet it also has some of the endless. So let’s learn to walk through its spacious chambers.