Kissing the Joy

The German’s have that word “Schadenfreude” to describe taking pleasure in another’s misfortune. But I wonder if they—or anyone— has a word for being displeased about another’s happiness. Post-Greek-workshop, I am smiling ear-to-ear and would hate to think that a reader might be thinking, “Will you shut up already about being happy?!!” Of course, it’s bad taste to crow too much when good fortune alights and I believe I’ve had my proper proportion of grief and sadness to keep things real and humble. 

 

But when the glad bird of happiness alights on my shoulder, I feel some need to mark the moment, a kind of kissing the joy as it flies (from a Blake poem). Tonight I started the workshop already in grand humor after my walk today and the way that emotion travels through the air, be it happy, sad, angry or bored, from one body to another, there is certainly no shame in being happy. The group was infected by my gladness from the first minute of the 4-hour workshop to the last and that’s a good thing. 

 

But best of all was my decision to bring Halloween into the room (as described in this morning’s post). Truth be told, I rarely teach this ritual event in workshops and it has been six years since I’ve done it with the kids. As I shared a reduced version of it, I felt the full measure of its power, beauty and brilliance, expertly weaving together speech, song, movement, folk dance, percussion sound effects, Orff ensemble, recorder and drama. The Greek folks were mesmerized, entranced and thoroughly delighted by it all and I was in heaven hearing these sounds again and reviving the muscle memory of all those years of doing it with kids. 

 

And the icing on the cake was ending the workshop with the aforementioned Skin and Bones song and scaring one delightful student so much that she yelped out loud! 

 

Did I mention how happy I am?