Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness

by Ingrid Fetell Lee

Once we accepted the notion that joy is inessential, it became easy for it to slip out of the center of our lives. Work became about endless gains in productivity, rather than the joy of craft or creation. School became a push for achievement, rather than an exploration or an adventure. Systematically, joy was squeezed out of the places where we spend most of our days. And the same thing happened to our physical environment. Buildings presented themselves as canvases for the display of status or ideology or brand identity, rather than spaces for the cultivation of joy. As joy moved to the edges of our world, to playgrounds and beaches, nature preserves and candy stores, the rest of the world was left to languish.