Every day we say, “It’s been a good day,” is a day someone was murdered somewhere in the world. Does this mean we should not celebrate the joys when they come?

In response, here is a bit from Jack Gilbert’s “A Brief for the Defense.” You can listen a somewhat muffled recording I made of the entire thing on SoundCloud last year.

The poor women
at the fountain are laughing together between
the suffering they have known and the awfulness
in their future, smiling and laughing while somebody
in the village is very sick. There is laughter
every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta,
and the women laugh in the cages of Bombay.
If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction,
we lessen the importance of their deprivation.
We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure,
but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have
the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless
furnace of this world.

So the Supreme Court did some things right this week. That hasn’t always been their track record, and we have cause for celebration. Health care and the rights of all Americans to marry were supported. And while reading the #LoveWins hashtags on Twitter I came across this from Stephen Cramer, and I cannot express my joy any better than in the glory of these voices.

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