Gratitude Monday: joyful heroes

We had a CEO update meeting last Thursday; it featured our head of HR, who works from home. She was in what I took to be her home office, and I noticed two pictures over her desk. I took them to by stylized portraits of the late Representative John Lewis (D-GA) and the late Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Friday I got around to emailing to ask her if I was correct. She said I was, and that on another wall she has a portrait of Nelson Mandela. They are her heroes.

I recalled a story in WaPo at the time of Ginsburg’s death, written by the paper’s theatre critic, and I sent it to the HR person. My comments on the three were as follows:

Mandela: forgiveness. (The man spent half his life in prison because White people did not want to give up power. Yet when he got out, he did not seek revenge; he forgave and moved himself and his country forward.)

Ginsburg: love of the arts. (In addition to being a thoughtful, meticulous legal scholar.)

Lewis: spine of titanium and a moral compass set to True North.

Over the weekend, I’ve been thinking about all three, and I believe they had something in common besides their commitment to social justice: look into their eyes in pretty much any photo or video; you’ll see a deep sense of joy. They had an immense capacity for joy, which I think kept Mandela going through all those years in prison and Lewis getting back up after repeatedly being beaten down by Whites with batons. And it kept Ginsburg steadfast in her interpretation of the Constitution.

Today I am grateful for people with the capacity for joy, because I believe that if you can feel joy, you will be inclined to do good. Taking pleasure in the pain or misery of others is not joy; those who do so are filling up on empty calories of junk food emotions. Those who experience joy do not believe we live in a zero-sum world, and therefore encourage the kind of rising tide that raises all boats, not one that raises some while sinking others.

I’m grateful for them for inspiring me to be better, also. I’m grateful to have been reminded of Lewis, Ginsburg and Mandela, and I eagerly look for the next generation of their like.