I hear some of you. You see the joy but you're not feeling it like some of the rest of us.
You might be feeling like it's a new gimmick. That could be because the DNC lost your trust 16 years ago and 8 years ago. I get it.
Or maybe it feels forced or it's a Kamala thing or I don't know what.
Well, as is my nature, I would not liken the joy thing to finding an Easter basket on Easter morning or your first crush. The former is delightful but fleeting after the chocolate is gone, the latter just feels too much like an Obamaphenomenon.
To me, it's a Tolkien kind of Joy.
It's like being in a battalion of horse born warriors, arriving at the battle to defend a city already under siege and burning, facing down a zillion orcs and giant war elephants ridden by physically corrupted Hannibals. They've got the numbers because our reinforcements haven't arrived yet. They've got nine undead necromancers causing fear and panic in the city.
The odds are against us.
But we don't know the end of this story.
And we are young, fit and skillful. We have bound ourselves to each other and to the city.
The sun is rising. The horses move restlessly. Theoden the king gives a moving speech then the riders spring into action:
"Theoden could not be overtaken. Fey he seemed, or the battle fury of his fathers ran like new fury in his veins…
…His golden shield was uncovered and it shone like an image of the sun, and the grass flamed into green about the white feet of his steed. For morning came, morning and a wind from the sea; and darkness was removed, and the hosts of Mordor wailed and terror took them, and they fled, and died, and the hoofs of wrath rode over them. And then all of the host of Rohan burst into song, and they sang as they slew, for the joy of battle was on them, and the sound of their singing that was fair and terrible came even to the City."
- The Ride of the Rohirrim, The Return of the King by JRR Tolkien.
People who don't know Tolkien think he wrote dungeons and dragons stories. But his stories were so much deeper than that. He survived the Battle of the Somme and probably witnessed both the terror and joy of battle.
The point of the joy is not that it's an inspirational word conscripted by the Democrats for the general election.
The joy is in knowing that even though the odds are against you, you know your cause is worth the fight and you go into it fully in charge of your destiny and not in despair because we do not know the ending beyond all doubt.
It turns out that the battle ebbed and flowed during the next chapter and there was death and grieving but courage and surprising heroism from unlikely places. (Don't spoil it if you know the story).
That's how I see this joy. We are fighting for that city and the battle is going to be hard. But we won't give up hope and there is joy in defeating our enemy and freeing the City.
Corny? Maybe. I find it invigorating. If you have a better story, I'd love to hear it.
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