I don't accept that pessimism and joy can't coexist, and I have no patience for those who insist that I should think different just because they require an imaginative crutch to lend significance to their lives. Yes, I will die; so will everyone else. That brute fact does not diminish my pleasure in life. If anything, those pleasures I do enjoy are made keener by the knowledge that it will all end some day.
My lover and family bring me joy. Music and the other arts bring me joy. I feel joy when I learn more about the world I live in. I experience joy in nature regularly. None of it depends on my indulging in the vanity of the believer: I am so important that eternity must put a stamp on these experiences before any of it "matters". I consider people who think that way as spiritually stunted dwarves, and the only appropriate response is pity and contempt.
My lover and family bring me joy. Music and the other arts bring me joy. I feel joy when I learn more about the world I live in. I experience joy in nature regularly. None of it depends on my indulging in the vanity of the believer: I am so important that eternity must put a stamp on these experiences before any of it "matters". I consider people who think that way as spiritually stunted dwarves, and the only appropriate response is pity and contempt.
