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Greg Thomas wrote on March 24, 2011@ Darryl -
“One joy shatters a hundred griefs”
Chinese proverb
“The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world's joy.”
Henry Ward Beecher
“Illusory joy is often worth more than genuine sorrow.”
Rene Descarte
"The blues is an impulse to keep the painful details and episodes of a brutal experience alive in one's aching consciousness, to finger its jagged grain, and to transcend it, not by the consolation of philosophy but by squeezing from it a near-tragic, near-comic lyricism"
Ralph Ellison, from "Richard Wright's Blues"
"Thus, despite the bland assertions of sociologists, 'high visibility' actually rendered one un-visible--whether at high noon in Macy's window or illuminated by flaming torches and flashbulbs while undergoing the ritual sacrifice that was dedicated to the ideal of of white supremacy. After such knowledge, and given the persistence of racial violence and the unavailability of legal protection, I asked myself, what else was there to sustain our will to persevere but laughter? And could it be that there was a subtle triumph hidden in such laughter that I had missed, but one which still was more affirmative than raw anger? A secret, hard-earned wisdom that might, perhaps, offer a more effective strategy through which a floundering Afro-American novelist could convey his vision?"
Ralph Ellison, from "Introduction to Invisible Man"
"I started with the primary assumption that men with black skins, having retained their humanity before all of the conscious efforts made to dehumanize them, especially following the Reconstruction, are unquestionably human. Thus they have the obligation of freeing themselves--whoever their allies might be--by depending upon the validity of their own experience for an accurate picture of the reality which they seek to change, and for a gauge of the values they would see manifest. Crucial to this view is the belief that their resistance to provocation, their coolness under pressure, their sense of timing and their tenacious hold on the ideal of their ultimate freedom are indispensable values in the struggle, and are at least as characteristic of American Negroes as the hatred, fear and vindictiveness which [Richard] Wright chose to emphasize."
Ralph Ellison, from "The World and the Jug"
