In our world of so much suffering, it can feel hard or wrong to invoke the word joy.

Yet joy has been one of the most insistent, recurrent rallying cries in almost every life-giving conversation I've had

across recent months and years, even and especially with people on front lines of

humanity's struggles.

And Ross Gay helps illuminate this paradox

and turn it into a muscle.

We are good at fighting, as he puts it, and not as good at holding in our imaginations what

is to be adored and preserved and exalted.

Advocating for what we love, for what we find beautiful and necessary.

And without this, he says, we cannot speak meaningfully even about our longings for a more just world, a more whole existence for all.

I love this wisdom of Ross, that we practice tenderness and mercy in part because to understand that we are all

suffering is a quality of what he calls adult joy. He is a poet and essayist and teacher, a passionate community gardener, also a former college football player.

Beginning with his cherished essay collection,

the Book of Delights, he began to accompany many

in learning, I would say, as an everyday spiritual discipline

to practice delight and cultivate joy. I'm Krista Tippett and this is on being. Roske lives in Bloomington, Indiana. His other books include Beholding,

catalog of unabashed gratitude, and inciting joy.

This conversation unfolded live at the Loft Literary Center's 2019 Word Play Festival.

So here we are.

And what we're gonna do is is I have these three beautiful books.

And if at any time you just feel called to read something,

you may.

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