Joy and Sorrow

“You look sad”, my friend observes.

“My mind is occupied by the suffering world”, I respond.

“At least you need not agonise for me, for I am always happy”, my friend tries to cheer me up.

“I am sorry that you are unable to concern yourself for the pain people endure”, I say.

“You are too sensitive for a man. One just cannot mourn at all times.” My friend interjects.

“No, he can’t. In life there is gain, there is loss; there is joy, there is dejection; there is unity, there is duality; there is the truth, there are lies; there is life, there is death”.

“Now that you know life, should you not live happily and merrily?” My friend counters.

“Yes, it makes sense”, I say. “If my child wants to play with me, I should give him time and share his joy. It is not fair to deprive him of my company, even if I am in grief over my other child who, somewhere in a dark street, is without shelter, shivering in the cold and going hungry.

“If my child wants me to read him a bedtime story, I should do it happily, even if I am in torment over my other child who is suffering from Autism, AIDS or is a victim of COVID-19.

“If my child wants me to give him a piggyback ride, I should do it cheerfully, even if I am in sorrow for my other child who is entombed under tons of rubble, trapped in a sunken sub or suffocated in a container truck.

“If my child wants to share with me the day’s funny events, I should be eager to listen to him, even if I am in agony over my other child who left home in distress and has become a drug addict, sex abuser or has taken up a gun.

“If my child wonders about the gift that the tooth fairy is going to bring him tonight, I should be delighted to make his wish come true, even if I am in anguish because my other child is held in a detention centre in an alien land facing a bleak future, tortured in a dark black cell in a remote camp or silently waiting on death row in a high-security prison.

“I should not deprive my child of his precious life, even if I am shattered as my other child’s blood-soaked body lying on my lap, holding my warm hand with his cold one… For joy and sorrow are the wheels on which life rolls”.

As always, my friend will have his last words, “Maybe before time a powerful Author writes an epic masterpiece and then at the strike of the hour, He brings His story to life such that all the fictional characters become real and begin to play their scripted roles.”

“Maybe you’re right. But is it not unjust to be punished twice? First, so-called ‘evil’ is imposed on a character. And then he is punished for being evil—a double whammy. Similarly, some characters are blessed as saints and then they are rewarded for being ‘sinless’—a double treat.”

My friend agrees. “Maybe in the next world a sinner becomes a saint and a saint becomes a sinner to make things even.”

“Okay, then, we both are fictional characters arguing on matters while there is nothing right and nothing wrong. Joy and sorrow are simply mirror images of each other.” I sum things up to my friend’s satisfaction.