Dear friends,
Today, we must revel in our humanity, which is a messy business, to be sure. It is hard not to watch Kevin McCarthy’s political struggle to win the Speakership with some satisfaction.
McCarthy’s spineless response to January 6 contributed to our national divisions at a moment when he (and so many others) could have helped to unite the nation. Now he’s herding crazy cats.
Nonetheless, I am leery of schadenfreude. Almost two years ago, on the morning of January 6, 2021, I ended a post with this sentence:
I’m going to stay away from the news today, content in the knowledge that Mitch McConnell is having a bad day.
The next day, I was full of remorse, because it was a very bad day for all of us.
But shadenfreude — for which there is a word in many languages, but not English! — and sympathy are not mutually exclusive. Because we are complex, shadenfreude
is enmeshed in so much of what is distinctly human about how we live: the instinct for justice and fairness; a need for hierarchies and the quest for status within them; the desire to belong to and protect the groups that keep us safe. It may seem superior and demeaning, yet it also speaks of our need to appreciate the absurdity of our attempts to appear in control in a world forever slipping out of our grasp.
So, if you have been amused to learn that Brazilian authorities are reopening the fraud case against George Santos, you are not alone and you are not even wrong. Likewise, when you read that Hope Hicks was really upset by Trump’s behavior on January 6. . . because of how it would impact her job prospects.
“In one day he ended every future opportunity that doesn’t include speaking engagements at the local proud boys chapter.”
Trump’s past behavior should have been sufficient warning for her.
Still, I admit that I am more comfortable with myself when I’m celebrating something good that has happened.
Recently, I happened on an article that describes freudenfreude, schadenfreude’s sweeter sibling:
Finding pleasure in another person’s good fortune is what social scientists call “freudenfreude,” a term (inspired by the German word for “joy”) that describes the bliss we feel when someone else succeeds, even if it doesn’t directly involve us.
So, here are some occasions for freudenfreude.
For months, I have been wondering how much good legislation Kathy Hochul would leave unsigned at the end of the session. To my delight, she buckled down for a productive gubernatorial cram session.
Hochul had also been lobbied by Order of the Good Death, an art collective, which sent
decorative, colored cards reading “Compost Me” and “I Want to Be a Tree.”
Natural organic reduction is pretty dignified, and the law requires that a certified facility is involved in the process. In lieu of a sealed coffin, the body is placed into a reusable container with a bedding of nitrogen-rich alfalfa or straw.
When the process is complete, in about two months, it yields roughly 36 bags of soil. Survivors can plant a tree or a garden with the soil.
Our remains are, by definition, someone else’s problem. Natural organic reduction is freudenfreude for all the people who remain on a living planet. Many of us have friends and family who hope to die as they lived — composting.
The Harlem-based group WE ACT championed the bill as part of a coalition of environmental groups. Their goal was to get the state to stop treating disadvantaged communities as environmental sacrifice zones. Everyone should live in community free of toxic pollutants.
WE ACT was also behind legislation to ban forever chemicals from clothing manufactured in New York, and the governor finally signed that bill, too. We supported it and it’s good news for all the folks who wear clothes.
After months of pressure from street safety and climate activists (including us), Governor Hochul signed legislation to fund holistic ‘Complete Street’ design.
A Complete Street is a roadway planned and designed to consider the safe, convenient access and mobility of roadway users of all ages and abilities. This includes pedestrians, bicyclists, public transportation riders, and motorists; it includes children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. Complete Street designs contribute to a cleaner, greener, transportation system. Under the new legislation, the state's contribution to the non-federally funded portion of Complete Street projects will increase to 87.5 percent, which will help municipalities to implement these street designs.
In addition, a second piece of legislation now requires that upstate transit agencies reserve a seat on the board for an individual who depends on public transit.
The law requires original equipment manufacturers (OEM) to make diagnostic and repair information for digital electronic parts and equipment available to independent repair providers and consumers if such parts and repair information are also available to OEM authorized repair providers and servicers.
This law is for all of the tinkerers and enemies of corporate abuse.
Hochul also signed legislation to increase rewards for reporting pandemic fraud and raise penalties for fraud that occurs during state emergencies. We are so tired of fraud.
Progressive voices in New York continue to urge the governor to withdraw her nomination of Hector LaSalle for chief judge of the state Court of Appeals and to instead select one of their three candidates to
stand up for New Yorkers in the face of an increasingly hostile, right-wing Supreme Court.
Send the Governor some appreciation AND urge her to take action on a few pressing issues.
Finally, a new NYS law now allows adults to obtain one-day certification as marriage officiants.
I would like to officiate a wedding, just once. What an opportunity for freudenfreude! There will be no charge for my services.
with love,
L