{"ops":[{"insert":"I recently attended a small dinner party and as a part of interacting with the guests I found myself seated beside a young man in his early twenties. \n\nGiven the casualness of the party I asked the young man what he did during his day to bring joy to his life. His response was unexpected because he looked at me in a startled look and said, \"I'll need some time to think about that because I don't really know.\" Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised by that response because in all fairness to him it's not every day that one is asked that question.\n\nAs I thought about this question the next day I decided I would try and get a better idea of exactly what it means to have joy in one's life.\n\nIn Eric Fromm's book To Have or to Be? he gives us a definition of joy by contrasting it with pleasure.\n\n\"Joy is the concomitant of productive activity, it is not a 'peak experience' which culminates and ends suddenly, but rather a plateau, a feeling that accompanies the productive expression of one's essential human faculties. Joy is not the static fire of the moment. Joy is the glow that accompanies being. \n\nPleasure and thrill are conducive to sadness after the so-called peak has been reached; for the thrill has been experienced. One has made the attempt to break through the boredom of unproductive activity and for a moment has unified all one's energies - except reason and love. One has attempted to become superhuman, without being human. One seems to have succeeded to the moment of triumph, but the triumph is followed by deep sadness: because nothing has changed within oneself.\"\n\nMaybe this was why the young man couldn't answer my question. \n"}]}