Finding joy amidst turmoil
Reflections on living - and writing- in difficult times inspired by a beautiful Vancouver Writers Fest opening event
I write this from the airport this morning as I wait to board a flight to Nelson to attend (and present at!) the Kootenay Rockies Tourism Conference and AGM this week. I'll be road tripping with a colleague, from Kelowna, later today and I'm really looking forward to enjoying the beautiful Okanagan fall colours and getting out of what has been record-breaking rainfall in Vancouver the last few days.
As I'll be away all week, during Vancouver Writers Fest, I was glad to get to sneak in at least one event last night - and it sure was the inspiration I needed. A question was posed to eight award-winning writers about how they find joy in times of turmoil. An important question for us all. And eight distinct, skilled masters answered it with personal essays and stories that had my heart alight.
As immense events happen around us, it can be hard to find grounding and perspective, let alone joy. How to hone in and honour our personal experiences, the nitty gritty stuff, our little moments of joy, when we know so many are suffering in places like the Middle East, Sudan, and Yemen? It can feel so insignificant to be getting excited about work events and road trips while cuddling my cats or eating a delicious homemade green curry prepared by my husband. It can feel so insignificant to be writing a Substack post while the news flashes the headline this morning, “North Korea sends troops to aid Russia's war in Ukraine.” It's relentless, yet we keep going. Our heart keeps ticking, finding levity, hope.
Last night’s event was the reminder I needed, that many of us need, to reflect on the immensity of what our human experience can hold - and needs to hold. With every agony, there is joy somewhere to be found and appreciated. With every hurt, a tendency toward healing.
John Vaillant shared the turmoil that erupted as the World Trade Centre came down on 9/11 while he was being met with the exquisiteness of watching his 9-month-old son speedily crawl across the room for the first time.
Heather O’Neill recalled her research trip to the West Bank before Oct 7, and the laughter she found there, in the children.
“This is just as real.”
- John Vaillant
Roddy Doyle shared the agony of his early years at a Christian school in Ireland where he and his friends played tricks on their mean-spirited, stern “fathers,” holding back laughter until they were out of earshot. He captured the sheer, visceral, and delicate power of joy - even when it is held back for a time - and the relief that comes when it is allowed to finally burst through.
Journalist and screenwriter turned novelist Andrey Kurkov shared his experience of ringing in the new year in Kyiv, the mix of emotions that erupted as neighbours clinked glasses
Where's the joy in confusion? It's in the response: I haven't a fucking clue!
- Roddy Doyle
Kim Thúy recalled the day her uncle purchased their first book in Canada, The Lover by Marguerite Duras, for the price it would have cost her whole family to eat for a month back in Vietnam. But the book’s poetic language taught young Kim to see her country as beautiful, as more. Perhaps it paved the way for the writer she would become - a true gift to us all.
Childrens’ author Bill Richardson shared his brief obsession with Elizabeth Taylor, the actress but also all the other Elizabeth Taylors that have graced the front pages of newspapers over the centuries - a testament to the richness of life that is lived in the midst of great terrors.
Tanya Talaga showed us the positive, connective, unifying ripple-out effects of naming our hardship and pain and sharing it with others.
Pakistani Canadian journalist Sadiya Ansari reminded us that we owe it to ourselves to soften our hearts with tenderness toward one another, to not let the turmoil around us harden us.
I’ve had a harder and harder time sharing my thoughts here as the world boils in despair around me. It feels moot and insensitive to write of my life as so many people lose theirs around the world. But these incredible literary voices reminded me of what our role is as writers. They gave me the permission I needed to take my life personally so that I can connect universally through my writing. The last thing we need is to be disconnected from one another because we can’t find our way out of despair. And writing and reading for so many of us helps us do that.
As the event host Elamin Abdelmahmoud poignantly pointed out in quoting the wise words of Rebecca Solnit: “…it’s not about the joy, it’s about the work, and there has to be some kind of joy in the work, some kind from among the many kinds, including the joy of hard truths told honestly.”
Thank you, Vancouver Writers Fest. ❤️
xx
Vish