Defiant Joy

October 19, 2026

I just voted by mail, and yet that doesn’t feel like enough of an effort to address a world descending into chaos and madness.

I did not march in the recent No Kings street protests because, while I’m sympathetic to the notion of resisting authoritarianism, I don’t necessarily agree with all the various fringe causes that distract attention from the main theme of the gathering. And I don’t want to align myself with the angry, violent people who sometimes hijack a peaceful protest and turn it into vandalism, arson, or rioting, as we’ve seen the last few days in Paris.

Granted, so far all of the No Kings marches here in Sonoma County have been orderly, and my friends who have attended them have reported that they experienced an atmosphere that was more festive than furious. But having witnessed violent demonstrations in Berkeley and San Francisco in the past, I’m distrustful of any negative energy that can spiral out of control and turn into anarchy.

The day may yet come when I feel compelled to take a more active stand against the encroaching fascism in this country and around the world, but for now my attention is elsewhere.

While there are serious social, political, economic, and environmental issues that need to be addressed, those topics are not my primary focus, though I follow them on a daily basis. I’m more interested in the underlying psychological and spiritual dynamics that are driving the evolution of the human race.

The big questions are: How can we humans get along with each other instead of destroying ourselves and the planet? How can we learn to be better stewards of our Earth home and its various non-human life forms? And how can we awaken to our own divinity and that of our fellow homo sapiens in a spirit of love?

Those are the questions I’ve been asking myself over the course of my 57 years of Buddhist practice. I used to think that Buddhism was the answer to those questions, and for some people, it is. But it is not the answer for most people. I suppose there are many paths to individual and societal awakening, but I just read about an insightful attitudinal approach to our dark times that I’ll share with you now.

In an article published two days ago the New York Times interviewed Bono and The Edge, two of the four musicians who comprise the Irish rock band U2. Lead singer Bono and guitarist The Edge, the band’s principal songwriters, were promoting their new album Carnaval De Luz. When asked what inspired their new musical compilation, The Edge explained, “We decided that the album should be a countervailing mood to the times. The times are anxious, despondent. People are really a bit lost, and we were like, what is it that we can help with here? And we thought an album that’s a party, a celebration, a sort of bringing people together, a gathering around our common aspirations, would be the thing to do.”

Bono chimed in, adding, “There’s a defiance to this too. There’s a Dan Savage [journalist] quote about when he was an AIDS activist in San Francisco in the middle of that crisis. He said, ‘In the morning, we would bury our friends. In the afternoon, we’d go out to protest so we’d have less people to bury. Then, in the evenings, we would go out and dance, because the dance is what we were fighting for.’ I loved that so much. That is not surrendering to the melancholy. That’s the defiance…If you go to the black church during civil rights, they’re up…Defiant joy is the thing we were looking for.”

The interviewer asked, “Where’s the line between the defiance you’re describing, and fiddling while Rome burns?”

The Edge replied, “Well, one is to be in denial, and one is to be fully aware, to stare darkness in the face and to still choose joy.”

I’m glad I voted, but maybe singing and dancing are more important.