February/March 2021
We have entered the month of Adar, and we are now arching towards a gorgeous full Purim moon this weekend. We learn in the Talmud, “As soon as Adar has entered, we increase in joy.” This year, I’m wondering what kind of joy we can cultivate and how can this holiday support us in this time? Joy like imagining what it’s like to be free from shame, or maybe in spite of shame, in spite of whatever made us heavy with that shame. Joy that is also subtle and small. Joy that is in relation to pain, that isn’t pretending it’s not complicated. Joy like a delta, a gathering of rivers that include the waters of grief and all the complexities of being human, of living on a planet that is unraveling. Joy like a little kid sticking their popsicle stained tongue out at authority or a surly teen flipping off whoever messes with you and your joy. Joy like queer love, queer rage, sweaty dancing, the magic of resistance that we specialize in. Joy that increases. Joy that is collective. Joy that frees us, frees all of us.
I love this little book called Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times by Nick Montgomery and carla bergman, in which they pull the ideas of happiness and joy apart and talk about how a joyful process is one that “is resonant with emergent and collective capacities to do things, make things, undo painful habits, and nurture enabling ways of being together.” They write, “under empire, happiness is seen as duty and unhappiness as a disorder…the point is not that happiness is bad or that being happy means being complicit with Empire. Happiness can also be subversive and dangerous, as part of a process through which one becomes more alive and capable…joy, in contrast to happiness, is to move away from conditioned habits, reactions, and emotions…It is a process of coming alive and coming apart.”
The questions asked in this book are the questions for Adar: How do we create situations where we feel more alive and capable than before? What supports people to refuse the all too common traps of moralism, clarity, and perfectionism in favor of increasing collective power and creativity? What if joy was seen as fundamental to undoing Empire? What would it mean to be militant about joy? How can we be more fully alive, as we, as so many things, come apart?
Adar, and the holiday of Purim, offer us some possibilities in response to these questions. Adar asks us, “Are you down to clown?” On Purim, we take off the masks we wear all other days of the year and dress as the truest expression of ourselves, or perhaps get to express a part of ourselves that is the most hidden. We turn everything on its head- gender, power, stories, time, and we can experience the possibility of joy as resistance, and of collective power as the way. We come alive, feast, dance, party, and listen to/participate in wild, creative retellings of a story about tyranny and hiding and organizing. Purim is also about redistributing resources as an expression of joy. Adar invites us to learn at the clown shoes of freaks and fools and tricksters and most children, who in my experience are pretty militant about joy. This day is the sacred calendar mirror of Yom Kippur- a day we contemplate our own death- and on Purim we celebrate the profane as sacred. Most people I know are having a rough time, feeling ever more disconnected, isolated, and heartbroken, feeling deeply the grief and pain of living in Empire/culture that doesn’t affirm life/climate catastrophe. In this time, joy must be a practice, because honestly, it’s not coming easily to most of us right now. How will you practice joy this month?
PRACTICES FOR ADAR:
- Commit to practicing joy as a way to undo empire inside yourself
- Put on one ridiculous item of clothing for a meeting, an errand, to cook a meal
- Do one thing each day in the most absurd, inefficient way as a fuck you to capitalism
- Watch and listen to hilarious things (here is literally 4 hours of videos of people falling if that’s your thing, youtube channel of my forever clown crush Tyler Gaca, or sing along to this classic, I wonder what’s inside your butthole?.) Feel free to send me your favorite funny videos.
- Some resources on Purim from RitualWell
- Journal, draw, meditate on these questions: How do we create situations where we feel more alive and capable than before? What makes me feel more alive, more free, and more capable for change and transformation? What if joy was seen as fundamental to undoing Empire? What would it mean to be militant about joy? How can we be more fully alive, as we, and many things, come apart?
- Attend a Purim event (list below!)
There are many amazing, radical Purim offerings this year and you can attend them all from your bed or living room!
- P7: Preposterous Pandemic Post Patriarchal Prophetic Purim Portal with Lab/Shul, Reboot and House of Yes. Feburary 25th, 9pm EST.
- Queer Purim Community Cabaret and Non-Traditional Auction with Pink Peacock and Homos & Houmous. Feburary 25th, 3-5:30pm EST.
- Shushan Rise Up! Megillah Reading, Shpil and Dance Party with Kol Tzedek Philadephia, February 25th, 6-9:30pm EST.
- DOIKAYT NOW: a Purimshpiel for the Current Moment, written and directed by Nomy Lamm. February 25th, 10pm EST.
- Rent Strike Shushan!, Hinenu, Baltimore, Thursday Feb 25th 6pm EST
TZEDAKAH/Joyful justice
Speaking of radical sexy clowns, support one of my favorite people on earth, UNA OSATO, who blesses us all by shaking her titties against imperialism and stripping for love and liberation! Check out her patreon and support!
List of places to donate to to support folks in rural Texas, from a friend involved in mutual aid projects there.
SAFE – shelters and programs supporting survivors of sexual abuse and domestic violence, Austin, TX
May joy find you easily this month and may it increase your capacity and aliveness! May our collective joy transform worlds! Have fun! Live it up! I love you!
With love,
Dori
