I am working on a long post that was supposed to go up yesterday, but then the day got away from me and now, well, I’m trying to finish to get it posted today. It’s something I needed to research, gather my resources, blah, blah, isn’t that impressive, and it will likely bore anyone but me immensely — and that-there is some truly stellar salesmanship of the ol’ post-aroo, Trace. Where’s that Harold Hill when I need him?
So to distract you in a Look!-Over-there! kind of way while I sneak brussel sprouts onto your blog plate, I offer a Christmas question — it is December 1st, after all.
Here it is:
Which one of these would you most like to possess, personally and unceasingly:
joy
hope
or peace
Which one do you choose and why?
(Love is left off by design, because … I’m a Scrooge, I guess.)
Proceed.
Joy – two kinds
– internal joy (kind of contentment) – I want that but sometimes I need it to diminish so that I’m prompted to try and improve things around me.
– external joy (typical world view) – maybe, but this could be delivered in a method that makes it not worth the price.
Peace – again, two kinds
– at peace with me (see contentment comments above)
– world at peace – that peace could be in the form of forced peace (read oppression). Peace is not always worth it.
For scenarios where having the above is bad, read much science fiction where the population is controlled by some means without their knowledge. It’s a common theme.
Hope – YES. I NEVER want to be without hope. With hope there’s the possibility of the right kind of joy and peace. With no hope, a kind of false peace or joy could keep you enslaved (to yourself, others, etc).
Joy. If you have joy, you can be happy regardless of the circumstances. Even when things are crappy, you can manage to laugh. Peace and hope are wonderul things, but even so, life without any happiness or joy is dismal.
Hope. Because if you have hope, you can get along even if there’s neither joy nor peace.
Peace. I have almost no peace as it is. I am nearly always anxious and unhappy. I experience joy all the time, but peace? Just the thought of it makes me want to cry.
I think I’m going to echo Sal and choose Hope, because even when joy, peace, and (I know you left it off the list) love have fled, at least hope keeps you thinking maybe they will come back some time. Hope is the one thing that keeps a person going even when everything else is gone. But without hope, I think it would be hard to be happy even with peace and love and even joy. (Or could you even have those, in the absence of hope?)
If I could have another one? It would be peace. But more for other people around me – my life, right now, is actually pretty peaceful, but I see so many people dealing with so much chaos. Most of it not of their own making. And it makes me sad, because it’s not like I can break off a chunk of my own peace and pass it over to them, as much as I’d like to.
Joy, peace, or hope – choose one. Now that’s the madcap, whimsical content I’ve come to expect on this here blog! 😀
:::fleeing:::
NF — HA! “BACK TO WHIMSY, OKAY???”
Hmmm… the past few years with my mentally-ill teenage daughter have swerved me over to the “PEACE” corner. I can usually find a way to laugh about something, and hope endures around here, but peace has been in short supply for far too long and it sure does wear one down.
Peace. You can’t really have it without joy and hope, can you?