Why Happy?
Jessica Craven explains why she always begins her posts with "Happy."
"Hi, all, and happy Friday.
"I received a complaint from a reader yesterday about the verbiage in this newsletter’s opening. The “happy” part. I’ve been using it here, of course, for eight years now, during good times and bad. It’s how I started, and it’s just never occurred to me to change it. This reader may or may not know all of that, but either way she asked if I would consider starting the newsletter another way now—I assume because things are so bad in so many ways.
"I get it. I really do. But I will not be changing the opening.
"Why? Because, folks, I simply refuse to let MAGA take away my joy. Or yours. I understand fully and completely how difficult a time this is. I’m aware of the suffering, the fear, and the panic. I feel it myself, often. But this newsletter isn’t meant to make you feel worse; it’s meant to lift you up, because no army can fight effectively when its morale is low. I’m here to remind you of what’s good—even if it’s only a tiny number of things—and what can get better if we work at it. I’m here to remind you of lasting principles, of the power of studying history, of the strength of community, and of the force of our actions. You have a thousand places to go to find out what’s wrong and how awful things are. I’m here to tell you what’s right, what we can affect with our actions, and how powerful you are.
"I’m also here to celebrate the fact that we are here at all! Because the fact of our resistance, if you want to call it that, is an unequivocally good and even “happy” thing. It is a manifestation of the best of humanity—that part that wishes to gather, to build, and to heal. There isn’t a day I don’t marvel at what we are doing here.
"And that’s why the 'happy' stays."
Let us not let MAGA take away our joy
Chop Wood. Carry Water
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