Ross gay quotes

And that that solidarity might incite further joy… My hunch is that joy, emerging from our common sorrow… might draw us together. We let sorrow wash up and take some of our clothes. The experience of joy is formed from our common sorrow.

The Book of Delights Quotes

This book focuses on both what incites joy and what joy incites— an exploration into the practices, the rituals, and the habits that make this type of joy available, which he then processes through the consequences of it. In order to first create a picture of what makes up the joyful emotion, Gay begins the book through fourteen incitements of the emotion.

In the introduction, however, he acknowledges how incomplete this list is. This wide range ross gay quotes incitements of joy means that each reader can potentially relate to one or more practices. Some incitements, like laughter and gratitude, are universal. Others more closely resemble sorrow, like death and grief.

In the second incitement, death, called Through My Tears I Saw, Gay explores what he healed by taking care of his father while he was dying from cancer. In order to achieve joy, we must acknowledge the ever present sorrow in our lives. Sorrow serves as a constant teacher. Both the death and grief incitements were painful to read, but Gay advocates for an achievement of full humanity through facing this sorrow.

My two favorite incitements of joy to read about were laughter and pickup basketball. How at football practice? How at church? Which also reminds us, or can—especially when we fall off our chairs, when we gasp for air how we sometimes do—of the dying we share. Which is a ross gay quotes big thing to share, when you think about it.

By sharing laughter, we are reminding ourselves of our common death. This common death is no small thing to share. He also describes how his father gets his family to laugh wildly from the grave. They make jokes about him, like how much he snored or the way in which he drank his wine, that make them share this joy.

Next, pickup basketball, the ninth incitement, is entitled Insurgent Hoop. He acknowledges the influence of fellow Black players on the game itself. He also declares that the game refuses the very conditions in which one becomes Black. This elsewhere liberates players and spectators, creating a world separate from the settlers and the owners.

To Gay, pickup basketball is inherently anti-colonial. It is practically unheard of to find a book dedicated to practicing joy. Thus, in its singularity, this book inspired me to reflect on what makes me joyful in my own life. While I resonated with many incitements Gay writes about, I also had many others to add to my list.

Reading this book inspires a fresh appreciation or gratitude for life, one that both comforts sorrow and celebrates joy.