Hello March!
1. Question – Have you ever thought
about an unsatisfied desire which you once experienced,
which you had no power over it, and is in itself more
desirable than all the pleasures of life put together?
2. Thought – I call it Joy, which is here a
technical term and must be sharply distinguished from both
Happiness and from Pleasure. Joy (in my sense) has indeed
one characteristic, and only one, in common with them; the
fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it
again. Apart from that, and considered only in its
quality, it might almost equally well be called a
particular kind of unhappiness or grief. But then it is a
kind we want. I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it
would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all
the pleasures in the world. But then Joy is never in our
power and pleasure often is. (Surprised by Joy by C. S.
Lewis)
“The one principle of hell is – ‘I
am my own.'”
(George Mac Donald)